If Cupid Had a Heart
by almostmissingyou
Summary: Lilly Truscott is unlucky in love. After the latest heartbreak, she decides to swear off love and boys. Miley really wants to help her friend, so she enlists some unlikely allies to help find Lilly’s perfect match. Simple, right? Not. Loe Niley Mikoliver
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first Hannah Montana fanfic, so please…be gentle.**

**I don't own Hannah Montana, or anyone else who might appear in this story….**

**I hope you enjoy!**

**HMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHM**

"This has been the best summer ever!" Lilly sighed contentedly to her best friend, Miley.

"I most definitely agree." Miley smiled and stretched out on her beach towel. Lilly and Oliver to her right building a sandcastle.

It was a sunny day in Malibu, like most days were, and the three teens decided to hang out on the beach for a little while before Lilly's boyfriend came to meet them.

Miley thought back on the summer that was ending. For Lilly and Miley life had been good. Really good. Miley's alter ego Hannah Montana was hotter than ever, selling out her two month summer tour within minutes of tickets going on sale. Miley had a blast performing and now, in the last days of summer vacation, she had a chance to just relax, write some songs with her dad and most importantly, hang out with her friends.

Life had been good for Lilly, too. She loved living the life of Lola Luftnagle, international jetsetter, etc. "Lola" and "Mike" (aka Oliver) had accompanied Hannah on her tour and they had an amazing time, traveling across the country and meeting Hannah's crazy fans. After the tour, in the waning weeks of summer, Lilly was just having fun skateboarding (and winning a couple of competitions in the area), hanging out with Miley and Oliver, and spending time with her boyfriend, Jake Ryan. Yes, Jake Ryan. Miley's Jake Ryan…who was now _Lilly's_ Jake Ryan.

During the last week of tour, Hannah and Lola had run into Jake when they were in Texas for a show. He had been there filming a movie in the area, and strangely enough, he and Lilly had immediately hit it off and they had spent the entire day flirting. But Lilly felt guilty because she wasn't sure if he was still seeing Mikayla. But when she asked him about it and he said that they hadn't seen each other in months, Lilly decided to take a chance. So she kissed him. And they'd been dating ever since. The end of Jake's filming coincided with the end of Hannah's tour, so he decided to come to Malibu to spend time with Lilly.

At first Lilly felt a little awkward dating her best friend's ex. Actually, she felt a LOT awkward…dating your best friend's ex was a total no-no. But as soon as Jake and Miley saw each other again, they KNEW that there wasn't anything between them anymore except for friendship. In fact, Miley was the one who encouraged Lilly to just go for it, if Jake was single. So Lilly got past the awkwardness, and she, Jake, Miley and Oliver hung out all the time. They were all dreading the start of school, where they would be sophomores! But Jake was coming back to Seaview, so at least they'd all be together.

"LILLY!!" A voice broke Miley out of her reverie. A huge smile broke out on Lilly's face.

"JAKE!" She cried happily. She jumped to her feet, the sandcastle and Oliver forgotten and ran to hug her boyfriend. Jake smiled and gave her a sweet kiss on the lips.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" He whispered to her. She grinned at him and nodded. He looked at Miley and Oliver and called out, "Hey Miley, Oliver we're going for a walk! We'll meet you back at Rico's in a little while for lunch?"

Miley sat up and smile, giving a thumbs up. Oliver, without looking up from his sandcastle, yelled, "15 minutes, guys! I'm hungry!" Jake and Lilly laughingly nodded and set off along the beach, holding hands and talking softly.

"Aren't they adorable together?" Miley commented, watching the couple until they disappeared. Oliver didn't respond. "Oliver? OLIVER!"

"Huh?" He looked up from his masterpiece, unaware that she had been talking to him.

Miley rolled her eyes. "Never mind."

He shrugged. "Hey, do you think I should fill the moat with Chai Crème Frappucino or Green Tea?"

Miley just stared.

"Green Tea it is…"

**HMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHM**

Fifteen minutes later, Miley and Oliver were sitting at a table in front of Rico's waiting for Lilly and Jake.

"They're late," Oliver muttered sullenly, slumped down in his seat. "Can't I just order now?"

"No!" Miley protested. "They'll be here in a few minutes. Just wait."

Suddenly Oliver jumped up in his seat. "Oh my gosh! Is that –?" He broke off pointing.

Miley turned and gasped. "MIKAYLA!?!"

Mikayla turned and saw Miley. She squealed and ran over to the two friends. She gave her a huge hug. "Oh my gosh!! MILEY!! What are you doing here?"

Miley smiled awkwardly. "I live here…What are you doing here?" _Uh oh, _she thought. _This could be really awkward if she runs into Jake…and I know how awkward encounters with exes can be…_

"I'm here to see Jake!" Mikayla answered brightly.

"Hannah-hating popstar say what?" Miley's eyes widened.

"Yeah, we haven't seen each other in months, since we were both off filming different movies. But he still called me every night to tell me how much he loved me and missed me." Mikayla gushed. "Isn't he the best boyfriend ever? Filming finished early and I wanted to come surprise him!"

Oliver's eyes widened and he and Miley exchanged a look. "But-but-but I thought you guys broke up!" he exclaimed, anger building up. He didn't know who this girl thought she was, but if she was going to go around spreading lies about his friends…

Mikayla turned to him as if finally noticing him. "_Excuse me_, not-famous-person. But where did you hear that?"

Before Oliver or Miley could answer Jake and Lilly appeared coming from the beach holding hands and cuddling close.

"Jakey!" Mikayla exclaimed happily. Jake looked up, his eyes wide, as she ran and threw her arms around his neck and gave him an enthusiastic kiss on the lips. Lilly looked up in horror as Jake pushed away from Mikayla with his free hand. His other was still holding Lilly's.

"Mik-Mikayla," Jake stuttered nervously. "What are you doing here?"

"You're so silly. I didn't tell you last night, but filming finished early. I wanted to come surprise you! So…surprise!" Mikayla's grin faded. "Why aren't you smiling?" Then she finally noticed Lilly. "Who's this?"

"I'm his girlfriend," Lilly growled.

"Um, no you're not. I am," Mikayla snapped.

"You _were_. You guys broke up." Mikayla just stared at Lilly blankly. The blonde looked up at Jake who had gone pale and was starting to sweat. And that's when she realized that she was being played. Again. "You guys didn't break up." It wasn't a question. She roughly pulled her hand out of Jake's and backed away from him. She found that Miley and Oliver were suddenly behind her, trying to support her and giver her strength.

"Why does everyone keep saying that we're broken up, Jake?" Mikayla's heart was pounding faster. He couldn't have been cheating on her. He just couldn't have been. "Jake?" She attempted to keep her cool and disdainful exterior, but she slowly felt herself losing it.

"Jake?" Lilly whispered. Here eyes were filled with tears, but she was determined not to let him see her cry. "Why?"

"Jake, why are people saying that we broke up?" Mikayla persisted, sounding just a little desperate. The only answer she received was silence. Until Lilly spoke up.

"Because that's what he told me. And it's what he told Miley and Oliver. That's what he told Jackson and Miley's dad. And he told me he loved me." Her voice cracked at the word love. "I'm asking you again, Jake. Why?"

Mikayla looked at the blond girl. She looked so sad and broken and in that moment Mikayla knew what Jake had done.

"Lilly, I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry." Miley thought Jake looked really remorseful, but she felt no pity for him. Apparently Lilly didn't either, because when he reached for her she backed away. "Just let me explain…"

"And what is it that you're going to explain, Jake?" It was Mikayla who asked this time.

"I'm sorry, Mikayla. But I've been cheating on you." She knew it. But it still hurt like hell to hear it. She slapped him. Hard. She watched as he reeled back, and he might have fallen if there wasn't a counter in his way. Mikayla snuck a glance at Lilly. She cracked the tiniest of smiles at seeing Jake in pain, but then grief clouded her eyes once more. Mikayla didn't want to feel bad for her, but she did. Because she knew that Lilly was the only one who knew exactly what Mikayla was feeling in this moment.

"I thought we were happy together, you-you-UGH! You told me you LOVED me," Mikayla felt like she was on the verge of tears. But she would be damned if she'd let this asshole see her cry.

"I do! At least, I did…But then I found Lilly again and…I love her, too. And I just thought that maybe if I was with her for a little while it would help me…choose." Jake finished his explanation and looked expectantly at the three best girls in his life and Oliver.

Lilly spoke up softly. "Well, how about I make this choice easier for you. We're done." Both Miley and Oliver put an arm around her, and the three walked away, Miley and Oliver shooting Jake one last glare.

"Mikayla," Jake started, but she cut him off.

"Just save it, Jake. I'd say have a nice life, but I really hope you don't." With that, Mikayla, too, walked out of Jake Ryan's life.

**HMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHM**

Mikayla walked along the beach, still stunned about Jake. Why would he cheat on her? And with someone so…so normal? It just didn't make any sense at all. She was Mikayla. She was special. So…why would he cheat on her? She remembered meeting Lilly before. There wasn't anything great about her. She wasn't as amazing as Mikayla was…right?

Without realizing it, she found herself in front of the trio of teens who she had seen not even ten minutes ago. Miley was holding Lilly as she sobbed. There was a dark-haired boy who was rubbing Lilly's back occasionally alternating between expressions of hurt and anger.

Before she could stop the words from coming out of her mouth, she blurted out, "Why would he cheat on me with _you_?" All three teens on the ground looked up, startled.

Miley glared. "Go away, Mikayla," she spat. For her part, Miley was disgusted with Mikayla. Did she not see the wreck that Lilly was? Did she not have a heart?

"But…but why would he do that? I'm Mikayla. I'm talented, and pretty and-and…" If anyone were watching Miley, they would have seen her getting angrier by the second. With each word that Mikayla spoke, Lilly was crying harder and harder. But Mikayla wasn't watching Miley. "He told me he loved me. Why would he do that if he loved me?"

Before Miley could say anything biting, Mikayla fell to her knees and let out a loud sob and began bawling. "Why didn't he love me? Why wasn't I enough?" A torrent of tears were coursing down her cheeks as she repeated her little litany over and over.

Miley and Oliver looked at each other. They could barely deal with a broken Lilly. What were they supposed to do with Mikayla? Should they comfort her? But that question was answered for them when something unexpected happened. Lilly pulled away from Miley and crawled over to Mikayla. Gently, Lilly hugged the other girl and Mikayla did the same and the two just knelt there, sobbing over a boy who they both thought they loved.

Miley and Oliver stared for a moment, but then the brunette went over and put her arms around both Mikayla and Lilly and Oliver did the same and the four of them stayed that way for a long while, drawing comfort from one another.

**HMHMHMHMHMHMHM**

When at last all the tears were spent, Lilly and Mikayla pulled away from one another.

"I should hate you," Mikayla whispered, looking at Lilly through puffy, red-rimmed eyes, mascara tracks staining her cheeks. Lilly looked similar.

"I know."

"But I don't."

"I'm glad."

"And I know that people typically don't say this to girls who their boyfriends were cheating on them with…but what the heck…we both hate him. Let's be friends." Mikayla hoped that Lilly would say yes. She didn't have a lot of friends, and she'd been okay with that before…because she had Jake. But now she didn't and she wanted to be friends…with Lilly and Miley and that other boy who's name she didn't know…

Lilly sniffled a little, and without even stopping to think about it, she answered. "Okay. I think I'd like that."

"This is going to be so much fun," she said with a small smile, purposefully echoing the words that she'd said to Miley before. "We can do all my favorite things, like shop, get our nails done, and-"

"Talk about how much you hate Hannah Montana?" Lilly finished with a small giggle, remembering the conversation.

"Pshh," Mikayla snorted. "Hannah Montana's old news. I was going to say talk about how much we hate Jake Ryan." The two girls giggled.

"I like that idea much better."

"You know what I think we need?" Miley interrupted, speaking for the first time since Mikayla first appeared on the beach. "Now that we're all friends, let's have a girl's night! We can watch cheesy girl movies, eat lots of chocolate and talk about how much boys suck."

"That'd be fun!" And despite the heartbreak that she'd endured over the last couple of hours, Mikayla was feeling somewhat good. She had friends now.

"Let's do it!" Lilly exclaimed, with her first real smile since walking up to Rico's with Jake. "I know this is probably a silly question, but Oliver, do you want to join us for a girl's night?"

Oliver laughed. "Thanks, but no thanks. I do appreciate the offer. And I'd better go…my mom expected me home half an hour ago!"

Mikayla watched as Oliver walked over to Lilly. _Oliver_, she thought. _That's a nice name_. She smiled as he hugged the blond.

"Stay strong, Lils," he whispered to her. "He so did not deserve you. Remember you have people who love you. A lot." Lilly squeezed reassuringly.

"You're an amazing friend, Oliver. I'm lucky I have you."

Oliver went to hug Miley, then walked over to Mikayla and did something unexpected. He hugged her, too. At first she was horrified. What was this guy doing hugging her? But she liked it. She hoped Oliver wanted to be friends, too.

"So I know we don't know each other," he began, but Mikayla interrupted him.

"Can we be friends?"

Oliver smiled. "That'd be great. You stay strong, too. Hopefully I'll see you around." And with that, he walked away.

Miley came around and grabbed both Lilly and Mikayla's hands. "Let's go! We have a girl's night to get to!"

The three girls giggled. Despite everything, it looked like the whole Jake Ryan didn't suck quite so much anymore.

**HMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHM**

**So there's chapter one. I hope you didn't hate it!**

**The Jonas Brothers will be making a later appearance.**

**I'd really love it if people reviewed! Let me know what I'm doing wrong or right, or if you have any ideas where the story should go I'd love to hear them. Should chapters be longer, shorter, or is this a good length? Let me know ******

**Constructive criticism is awesome. Flames make me a sad panda.**

**Thanks!**

**-v**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow, so thanks to everyone who reviewed the first chapter. Like, a hundred million, zillion times thanks. The reviews totally made my day (and when you're in the middle of midterms, you really need all the happiness you can get…). And because of all the reviews, I decided to upload chapter two! So those of you who have reviewed, you rock! **

**So here's chapter two! It's kind of a long one…if you want shorter or longer chapters, let me know! And thanks a million for reading **:)

**HMHMHMHM**

Lilly cuddled into the couch as the ending credits for _A Cinderella Story_ rolled on the screen. She, Miley, and Mikayla were having a girl's night/"Hate Jake" sleepover.

"You know," Lilly had commented when the sleepover began at five. "How is watching ridiculously unrealistic love stories and listening to happy pop music supposed to help us get over the fact that Jake Ryan is a lying cheating scumbag?" Lilly's heart gave a little flip at Jake's name, but as she thought about what he'd done to her and Mikayla it went plummeting down to the tips of her toes once more.

"We could always watch horror movies and listen to angry girl music," Miley offered.

"Chick flicks and Britney Spears it is!" Lilly exclaimed.

"Only the second CD, though. The first and second albums are classic, but the first one's waaaaaay too love sick," Mikayla added. "Oh, and _please_ no Hannah Montana!"

That made Lilly crack up causing Miley to glare at her, but then she started laughing, too. So now here they were finishing their fourth chick flick (after going through _10 Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde, _and_Practical Magic_) and were working on the supply of chocolate Robbie Ray had gone out and bought them when he heard about Jake (after promising to not go out and beat him up).

Miley got up and turned off the movie. Rather than putting in another one, she turned on the Disney channel. Mikayla's face filled the screen and the notes of her hit single"If Cupid Had a Heart" permeated the room.

"Oooh, look! It's me!" Mikayla exclaimed happily. "And I'm totally feeling this song right now." She jumped up and started dancing and singing along. Miley chuckled and joined her. Lilly was about to, but then she sighed.

"If cupid had a heart, he would leave me alone," Lilly muttered to herself. Mikayla and Miley heard her and shut off the TV. Mikayla looked puzzled.

"Okay, so I know Jake was a jerk. But in a few weeks you'll be up and ready for the dating scene again!" Mikayla sounded so cheerful and optimistic that Lilly wanted to believe her. She really did, but her dating history definitely suggested otherwise.

"No, I don't think so. Boys and I are just trouble," Lilly sighed.

"Well, you may have been a little unlucky in love…" Miley mused. "But that doesn't mean you should give up on guys!"

"A little unlucky? Miley, you know better than that. What happened with Matt?" Lilly demanded.

"He stood you up, then he realized he was in love with someone else," Miley admitted. "But that was just one-"

"And Lucas?" Lilly interrupted.

"He cheated on you, but-"

"Kai?"

"He was using you to make a girl jealous and then went out with her behind your back, but still-"

"I know I don't need to remind you about Jake. Isaac?"

"He realized he was gay and found a boyfriend while he was dating you. Look, Lilly, where are you going with this?" Miley sounded exasperated.

"All that really happened?" Mikayla asked, awed by this terrible romance misfortune inflicted on Lilly.

"Unfortunately, yes," Lilly mumbled. "What I'm saying, Miley, is that every single relationship I've had has ended badly. And not just bad. SPECTACULARLY bad. So I'm done. No more dates, no more love, no more romance. None of it. Maybe until college, maybe forever."

"Lilly, we're at an age where boys are dumb…they won't all be able to see how fabulous you are if you give up on them!" Miley exclaimed.

"And you know, I've only really known you for half a day, and you are already one of my favorite people. You're an amazing person, Lil. I mean, how many people would reach out to a girl who has been nothing but a bitch since day we met?"

"I really appreciate the effort, guys. I do," Lilly said dejectedly. "But I just don't think my heart can take anymore of this. But let's not talk about this anymore. Let's do something fun!"

"Ooh, we can do each other's nails!" suggested Miley. Lilly agreed and both girls looked at Mikayla. She looked really skeptical.

"Uh uh, I only get my nails done by the _best_professionals." Lilly and Miley just looked at her. "What?" There was still no response. "Ugh! Fine!" But she was smiling as she acquiesced.

As the girls were painting each other's nails different colors (red for Mikayla, blue for Miley and yellow for Lilly), the conversation turned back to boys.

"So Mikayla," Miley started. "When do you think you'll start dating again?"

"You know, I don't want to force anything, so when it happens it'll happen…" Mikayla answered. "But Jake really did a number on both me and Lilly. I don't think I'll be ready for another few weeks. But mark my words, I will get over him. And all this girly stuff really helps. Oooh, and great job on my nails, Lilly! They look absolutely fab!"

Lilly grinned. "Thanks!"

"What about you Lilly? I know you don't want to date again for a while, but what kind of guy would it take for you to change your mind?" Miley asked.

"I honestly don't think any boy will make me change my mind…" Lilly sighed. Miley opened her mouth to protest but Lilly continued. "However, if I were to meet the perfect guy, I'd consider dating him…"

"Well don't leave us hanging, Lilly! What would this perfect guy be like?" Mikayla demanded when Lilly showed no signs of continuing the conversation.

"Well, above all he'll have to be honest. If there's anything that this whole…_Jake_ fiasco has taught me, it's that honesty is so important. I have to be able to trust him. He'll also have to be funny and outgoing. But not too outgoing…I don't want a drunken partier for a boyfriend. Being nice is a given. Sweet and romantic are musts, athleticism is a plus, and intelligence is a no-brainer. Haha, get it? Intelligence…no-brainer..." Miley and Mikayla rolled their eyes.

"Back to the list, Truscott," Miley said.

"Let's see…Mr. Perfect will have to be a little bit stubborn because I don't like wishy-washy guys. God will be really important to him, and so will family. Most importantly, however, he'll have to see me for who I really am and love me…" she trailed off, then sighed. "It sounds stupid, doesn't it?"

"No, it sounds…perfect!" Mikayla gushed.

"Yep," Lilly agreed. "Far too good to be true."

"Oh, don't be so pessimistic!" Miley admonished. "You'll find him one day! Now what will Mr. Perfect look like? He'll be cute, right?"

Lilly laughed. "I hadn't really thought about that…Let's see…I like tall-ish boys. Like, over 5'8". Dark would be good, either complexion or hair color. I think that would look good contrasted with my blonde-ness. He doesn't need to be devilishly handsome or stylish, but he has to_ have_ a sense of style and he would have to look like he took care of himself…"

Without warning, Lilly's eyes lit up. "Oh! I've got it…I won't date until I find this guy."

"Um…Lilly, I hate to break it to you, but you're probably never going to find a guy like this…" Miley stated. Lilly's smile was slightly sad.

"I know."

**HMHMHMHMHM**

Later that night while Miley and Mikayla were sleeping, Lilly snuck out to the Stewarts' porch to look at think. She looked out at the sea and smiled as she felt the ocean breeze caress her skin. This feeling was bliss and freedom. This, at least, was something that Jake Ryan, or any other boy, for that matter, couldn't take away from her. And they had already taken away too much.

Lilly was so lost in thought that she didn't hear the door open or realize that she had company until she felt someone sit down next to her. Lilly turned to see who it was and smiled.

"Hey Miley," she said softly.

"Hey yourself," Miley responded with a slight smile of her own. "I went to go use the bathroom and I saw you were out here, so…I'm really sorry about Jake. I thought he was our friend."

"Thanks. Poor Oliver, though. I mean here was finally a really great guy friend for him…they could do boy stuff together and bond while we were off doing all the girly stuff…I think they were getting really close."

"Yeah…we need to find Oliver a guy friend that neither of us are going to date…" Miley heard Lilly's quiet giggle as a response.

"You know, you and Oliver can still be friends with him if you want," Lilly said after a moment.

Miley's response was immediate. "Are you crazy? After what he did to you and Mikayla? I swear, Lilly, sometimes you really are too nice." There was another lull in the conversation until Miley broke the silence. "You know, you had every right to hate her…"

"No, I didn't. I wanted to, but she didn't do anything to me. It was all him." She felt tears welling up in her eyes for the millionth time since the encounter at Rico's and she tried to blink them back "But I'm glad we're friends now. Even if she does hate Hannah Montana," she added with a nudge to Miley.

Miley grinned. "Strangely enough, I am too. Should I tell her, do you think?"

Lilly thought a moment and then shook her head. "We just really became friends today, under not so great circumstances...we should give it a little time."

"Speaking of time," Miley tentatively segued. "I really do think in time you'll be ready to date again."

Even before the final words had left Miley's mouth, Lilly was shaking her head. "I really don't think so, Miley."

"Not even Joe Jonas?" Miley teased. She knew that Lilly had had _the_ biggest crush on him before Jake.

"_Especially_ not Joe Jonas. No more famous people for me. Jake was enough of a heartbreak." All of a sudden, the emotions became too much for Lilly. She began sobbing all over again. "It hurts so much, Miley. Why won't it stop?"

Miley took her in her arms and rocked her gently. "I know, honey, but the pain will stop in time. Just know that we'll be here for you. You have me, and Oliver, and even Mikayla now. And did you see the way my daddy reacted after we told him about Jake? Sweet Niblets, I thought we were gonna have to call Roxy to hold him down!" That elicited a watery chuckle from Lilly. "People care about you. A lot. Just remember that."

After a few moments of silence, Miley spoke again. "And guess what? Hannah has two backstage passes to the Jonas Brothers concert next week in L.A. And one of them has your name on it!"

Even in her depressed state, this was enough to make Lilly squeal, however muted it may have been. Both girls giggled.

"Ha!" Miley crowed triumphantly. "There's the best friend I know and love! I'm gonna head off to bed. Are you gonna be alright out here?"

Lilly's smile was teary, but she nodded. Miley turned to go when she heard Lilly call her name. "Miley?" The brunette turned to face the other girl. "Thanks for everything."

**HMHMHMHMHM**

The next week flew by quickly. Mikayla stayed in Malibu for a few more days, and she, Lilly, Miley and Oliver hung out a lot, getting to know each other better. They'd shop, go to the beach, or just hang out someone's house to watch movies. Mikayla had a movie premiere to go to one night, so she invited the other three to come with her as her "dates". Miley kind of liked being at a celebrity event without having to deal with being an actual celebrity. People weren't always asking you questions, or taking your picture or anything, although she and Mikayla did have to field a few awkward questions about Jake.

All of them had received numerous phone calls from him, but no one answered. Lilly and Mikayla both finally got his number blocked, after a while, but at Lilly's request, Miley and Oliver didn't. Both Lilly and Mikayla had moments of sudden depression when they thought about him, although it looked like Mikayla was dealing with it much better than Lilly was.

Mikayla left the Thursday before the Jonas Brothers concert, but not until she invited Lilly, Oliver and Miley to the premiere of her movie in New York in a couple of months. She even offered to pay for their plane tickets!

After Mikayla's departure, the trio threw themselves into school preparations…buying new school clothes and school supplies, catching up on summer assignments that they had completely forgotten about, and mentally preparing for being forced to be around Jake.

School wasn't the only point of anticipation. Despite feeling low about 65 of the time, Lilly felt the excitement of going to the concert building in the pit of her stomach. Miley said that they'd actually get to talk to the brothers, and even though Lilly didn't want to_date_ any of them, she thought it'd be really cool to be friends with them. Miley had invited Oliver to come along, but his mom was forcing him to stay home and clean his room, "to be ready for the start of school", so it was just going to be Hannah and Lola.

The night of the concert, Lilly was almost back to her normal, spazzy self. She was a bit subdued, but her smile was back in place and she was bouncing up and down with excitement when they got backstage, where they'd be watching the concert from.

"We're gonna meet the Jonas Brothers, we're gonna meet the Jonas Brothers!" she was singing softly.

Miley looked at her in amusement. "Li-Lola, you've already met the Jonas Brothers. Three times if you count being Milo and Otis."

Lilly laughed at the memory. "That was definitely a great moment. I got to hug Nick!"

"Hey! Hands off!" Miley said before she could stop herself. Lilly's eyes widened.

"Oh my goodness, you have a crush on Nick! Hannah has a crush on Ni-ick, Hannah has a crush on Ni-ick, Hannah has a crush on Ni-" her little song was cut off by Miley slapping her hand over Lilly's mouth.

"Will you shush? What if they hear you?" Miley said in a stage whisper. Removing her hand from Lilly's mouth, she added, "And what about your crush on Joe?"

Lilly rolled her eyes. "We've been over this a million times this week. No more dating for me, possibly ever. And you know what, what's so great about Joe Jonas anyway?"

"Lola-" Miley's eyes had widened and she was staring at something just past Lilly's shoulder. But Lilly was on a roll, and she would not be interrupted.

"Sure he's got a pretty face -"

"Lola-"

"And nice eyes and amazing hair – "

"_Lola_-"

"And a voice to _die_ for, but we really don't know him or anything about him. What's to say he isn't a snobby, stuck up, self-centered, Jake Ryan-like-"

"LOLA!" Miley shouted it this time. Lilly blinked at her and tilted her head to the side.

"What?" But Miley just shook her head. It dawned on Lilly that Miley was looking at something to Lilly's left. And behind her. Oh dear. "There's a Jonas right behind me now, isn't there?"

Miley could only nod.

Lilly turned and plastered a fake smile on her face and turned around. Thankfully, it wasn't Joe. It was, however, both Nick and Kevin. Her face immediately turned red.

"Just out of curiosity…how long have you been standing there?" Lilly asked, shutting her eyes and biting her lip.

"Oh, since about 'amazing hair'." One could hear the amusement in Kevin's voice. Lilly opened her eyes and Nick grinned.

"Well, I did hear the part about the pretty face," he added helpfully.

"Oh God, just kill me now!" Lilly whispered to the heavens.

"That would be such a shame. We were just getting to know you, Lola. And you know, we need more people in the world with bright pink hair. It'd be such a shame to lose one," Kevin stated with a little laugh.

Miley punched Kevin in the arm. "Oh stop, you're embarrassing the girl!"

Lilly apologized profusely. "I am so, so sorry. I didn't mean any of that stuff about Joe. I mean, I don't even know him. I'm sure he's a wonderful, kind-hearted, generous person who is _nothing_ like _Jake Ryan_."

Nick looked at Kevin. "I dunno, Kev. I would say that Joe's a little stuck-up, wouldn't you?"

Kevin laughed. "And snobby would be a good-" But he was cut off as Miley hit him again. "Ow! Why do you always hit me? Nick was doing it, too!" he whined.

"It's because I'm specia- OW! Hannah!" Nick cried as Miley hit him, too. He rubbed his arm in the spot she hit him. "That really _does_ hurt…"

"Serves you right, picking on my friend. And when, exactly, am I going to get a greeting from you two?" Miley demanded.

"Hi Hannah," the two boys mumbled as they went to hug her, but after the hug they both pulled away grinning. "We missed you!"

"I missed you, too! We don't see each other nearly often enough anymore!" Miley, or should we say _Hannah_and the boys were pretty good friends, having gone to many of the same events and doing some concerts together. Just then, a loud crash startled all of them.

"Joe!" Kevin and Nick shouted together. "What did you do?"

There was a quick response of "Nothing!" from another room, and then Joe appeared in the doorway.

"LOLA! HANNAH!" he cried, holding his arms out and running to both the girls to give them hugs. "Long time no see!"

Lilly was stunned. "You remember me?" she asked before she could stop herself. Joe had his arm around both girls now and Lilly was looking up at him.

"Of course I do! You have the most AWESOME hair. It's always different colors when I see you. Last time it was…purple, I think, when we saw you six weeks ago in Chicago." Joe smiled broadly, then paused "You know, I want pink hair. But Kevin says he'd refuse to straighten it for me, so there goes that dream…"

In spite of herself, Lilly giggled.

"So Lola," Nick broke in. "What do you have against Jake Ryan?" Miley's jaw dropped at the question. Joe looked confused, and Lilly looked stricken.

At Lilly's reaction, Kevin hit Nick on the back of the head. "Ow! What?"

Miley let out a loud huff. "And I thought you were supposed to be the cute, _sensitive_ one."

Joe still looked lost. "Why do I get the feeling I'm missing something?"

Before anyone could respond, the boys' dad came in. "Boys, you need to be on stage in five minutes! Let's go!"

Kevin turned to Miley and Lilly and frowned slightly. "Sorry about Nick. He's not very bright." That got a small smile out of both girls.

"Hey!" Nick exclaimed. Then he turned to the girls. "I'm sorry about…well, whatever it is I did."

"It's okay, Nick," Lilly said quietly. Joe gave both girls a hug.

"Talk to you after the show, okay?" And without waiting for a response, he and his brothers headed out to the stage, Joe skipping behind his Nick and Kevin.

Miley and Lilly waited a little bit before going to where they would watch the concert. "Hey, are you okay Lils?"

Lilly tried and failed at a grin. "It's Lola, remember? International jetsetter?"

"Not right now it isn't. It's Lilly, my best friend. And if you're not feeling up to the concert, we can totally go home."

Lilly smiled a real, if small, smile. "Have I mentioned that you and Ollie are the best friends ever? I don't think I can mention it enough. And I can handle it. I really can." But it sounded more like she was trying to convince herself of that.

The two girls watched the concert from one of the wings of the stage, and even though Lilly's enthusiasm had been dampened a good deal, she still had fun. Until they got to "Goodnight and Goodbye." And she couldn't help but think of Jake and once again it all just got too overwhelming. She felt the tears forming in her eyes, but she didn't want to break down here. She muttered something to Miley about finding a bathroom, and ignoring Miley's directions on where to go, she found an empty room. She tore of her wig and threw it on the ground.

She fell to her knees and sobbed.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

**I hope this chapter was satisfactory and not too long. And seriously, when I need a pick-me-up, I listen to Britney Spears' first two albums. They make me happy.**

**I love reviews, so thanks again to those who left them last chapter. Constructive criticism makes my day, flames make me sad, and any comments or suggestions to improve the story or the quality of writing are more than welcome**

**Just a note to say also that updates usually won't be this frequent. I'll try to update as often as I can, but unfortunately college comes first…as such, chapter three may be up by Sunday, but after that I have more midterms so I'll be attempting to study for those…But after that is spring break, so…yay! Anyway, please review. It would make me a happy panda.**

**Thanks!**

**-v**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you a zillion times to those who've reviewed. So thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!!**

**I know I said that this chapter would be up by Sunday, but I hope you don't mind that I'm updating early :-p. I'm not sure when chapter 4 will be up, but if not by this Sunday, it probably won't be up until **_**next**_** Saturday or Sunday.**

**Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy!**

**(And by the way, I don't own Hannah Montana or the Jonas Brothers…just in case you didn't know :-p)**

**HMHMHMHMHM**

Miley was worried. Lilly had been gone for over half an hour and the concert was just ending. She had said that she needed the restroom, but Miley was almost positive that she had seen tears shining in her eyes. Suddenly her phone vibrated; it was a text message from Lilly.

_H, sry 4 worrying u. Im ok. Just need 2b alone 4 a while. _

Miley let out a sigh of relief. She was still worried, but she was glad that Lilly was at least physically okay.

"RAWR!!" Something jumped out at Miley and growled at her.

Miley shrieked and fell back. She ducked, trying to hide from her would-be attacker. And that's when she heard the laughter. She picked up her head a tiny bit to see what was going on and saw Kevin and Nick practically rolling on the floor laughing. Joe was crouched in front of her, his arms extended, fingers curled like claws and his face contorted into a freaky looking monster face. Miley glared even as she blushed.

"That was so not funny," she muttered.

"Sure it was," Nick smirked. He had stopped laughing (hard) and extended a hand to help her up. "Your face was priceless."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Her cheeks still red, she decided to change the subject. "Good show, guys. You really rocked out there tonight!" The boys smiled, but Joe was looking around for someone.

"Where's Lola?" he asked.

Miley wasn't sure what to tell them, so she decided to go with the truth. "She needed a couple of minutes to herself…but she'll come back soon."

"Is she okay?" Kevin asked concernedly.

"Yeah," Miley answered, biting her lip. "She'll be fine." _I hop_e…she added mentally.

"Okay…well we were hoping to go out to dinner with you guys after, is that cool?" Kevin asked.

Miley smiled brightly. "That'd be great!" They made their way back to the boys' dressing room where they needed to go and shower (performing really made you work up a sweat…) and were chatting away when Miley, Kevin and Nick noticed that Joe was being extremely quiet. They understood why when they realized that Joe wasn't with them anymore. He had disappeared.

**HMHMHMHM**

Joe decided to go look for Lola. He didn't really know why, but he wanted to be sure she was okay. The few times that he had met her, she seemed like a really cool girl. A little star struck and hyper, but that was okay with him. He really hoped that they could be friends. Peeking in all the doors he passed backstage, he saw his mom and Frankie in one room, his dad and his manager in the next room, and a blond girl he didn't recognize in another, but no pink hair. Wait? Blond girl? How did she get back here? He backed up and opened the door again, poking his head in. Sure enough, there was the blond girl kneeling on the floor wearing…Lola's clothes? Looking closer, he saw a pink _thing_ by her knees. Was that a…_wig_? The girl wasn't crying, but she definitely looked like she had been. Her eyes were closed and it seemed like she was thinking. And apparently she hadn't noticed that she had company.

"Lola?" Joe asked tentatively as he stepped in and closed the door. With a loud gasp, her eyes flew open and she scrambled to put her wig back on.

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Hannah is gonna kill me!" she was saying. Joe walked up to her and stilled her hands. He took off the wig that lay haphazardly on her head and he smiled as he sat down next to her.

"So I didn't think the pink hair was real, but it's always good to be sure." That got a tiny smile from her. Upon closer inspection, her eyes were definitely red-rimmed and puffy from crying. He shot her a concerned glance. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"My hair?" she asked, puzzled.

He shot her a bemused look. "Well, you can explain that if you want to, but I'm sure you have your reasons. But I was thinking more along the lines of talking about why you've been crying."

She opened her mouth to protest, then shut it again.

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, but it might help," Joe offered.

She was silent for a while, and he was sure that she wasn't going to say anything when she spoke. "Why not? I guess I need a guy who isn't my best friend to tell me the truth…" She paused and took a deep breath. "Is there something about me that sends a signal to guys that says 'use me!' or 'cheat on me'?"

"What?" He was confused again.

"Is there something about me that makes me seem…dispensable. I mean, almost every boy I've dated has used me or cheated on me or used me to cheat on someone else and so maybe, I was just wondering if…it's me. If _I'm_ the one who's the problem and _not_ the guys. And Oliver would tell me that it isn't my fault, but he's my best friend so he's supposed to say things like that so I was hoping that maybe someone who isn't my best friend could tell me if it _is_ me and not them, so I can just accept that I can never having a worthwhile relationship and move on with my life." Her voice had picked up speed as she spoke and soon her words were almost incomprehensible, she was talking so fast.

"Woah! Lola, slow down…breathe…there we go. Alright, now do you want to start at the beginning?"

She nodded, took another deep breath and started again. From the beginning this time. From Matt to Jake, she gave him her entire relationship history, speaking steadily, pausing when she needed to and even crying every once in a while.

"Jake? Jake Ryan?" Joe asked when she was done. She nodded glumly. "Wow, he's dumber than I thought he was!" That made her giggle. "Feel better now?" He asked, wiping away a stray tear.

She nodded, and said, "Thanks for listening."

"And just so you know, Lola, it isn't you. Guys are just naturally dumb, and one day you'll find one who will see how wonderfully fantabulorific you are. Until then, none of them are worth it."

She smiled, a real smile this time. "Fantabulorific? Is that a word?"

"Yes!" Joe exclaimed in mock outrage. "You know, fantastic, fabulous and terrific, all in one. It's a real word. Really."

She laughed, then she looked around. "Where are we?"

"Backstage, silly." He pouted when she glared at him. "Okay, we're in an instrument store room. See? There are my tambourines, and here's my guitar…Ooh, I have an idea! I'll play you a song!"

Lilly smiled as he picked up an acoustic guitar. She was thinking he'd play something like "Hold On" or "Take a Breath" to make her feel better, but no…she laughed hysterically as she recognized the song.

"_State the obvious, I didn't get my perfect fantasy.  
I realized you love yourself more than you could ever love me.  
So go and tell your friends that I'm obsessive and crazy.  
That's fine; I'll tell mine you're gay! And by the way…_"

Lilly joined in.

"_I hate that stupid old pickup truck  
you never let me drive  
You're a redneck heartbreak  
Who's really bad at lying  
So watch me strike a match  
on all my wasted time  
As far as I'm concerned you're  
just another picture to burn"_

Joe sang the next verse.  
_"There's no time for tears  
I'm just sitting here planning my revenge  
There's nothing stopping me  
From going out with all of your best friends.  
And if you come around  
Saying sorry to me  
JOE JONAS gonna show you how sorry you'll be!"_

Lilly laughed and they sang the rest of the song together, with Lilly cracking up throughout. When they were finished, Joe grinned.

"That was fun," he said. And Lilly nodded in agreement. And then Joe had an idea. Lilly could tell because you could practically see a light bulb turn on over his head. "I have an idea! I'll be right back!"

Lilly watched in confusion as Joe ran out of the room and came back three or four minutes later with an open teen magazine in one hand and a lighter in another.

"Joe, what are you doing? And do you subscribe to that magazine?" Lilly asked skeptically.

"No, Nick does," he said impatiently. "Here." He smiled and showed her the page in the magazine. It was open to a picture of Jake Ryan.

"What-?" she began, but stopped as he ripped out the page and held it and the lighter to her. "I'm still a little confused…what?"

"Were you not paying attention to our song?" Lilly still didn't get it. He rolled his eyes exasperatedly. "He's just another picture to burn. So…get to it!"

Lilly's face lit up and she eagerly grabbed the lighter and the picture and set it on fire. Joe and Lilly watched with satisfaction as the page went up in flames. "That was oddly gratifying," she commented after the page was just a pile of ashes between them. Joe laughed and she looked at him searchingly. "Thank you. But…why are you being so nice to me? Not that I mind, but you don't really have to be nice just cuz I'm Hannah's friend."

"Well, Miss Lola, if we're going to be friends, I do have to be nice to you. And just so you know, we're going to be _best_ friends."

"Really, now? Best friends?" she drawled, raising an eyebrow. Meanwhile inside her inner fangirl was jumping up and down, squealing, doing cartwheels and back flips and pretty much anything else you could think of. Joe Jonas wanted to be friends! And not just friends, BEST friends!

"Yep. I decided when we met again in Chicago. So I really hope you agree. You seem like a cool chick, and since we're moving to Malibu, I figure I'll need all the friends in Southern California that I can get-"

He was cut off by Lilly's excited squeals, her heartache momentarily forgotten. She jumped to her feet and bounced around shrieked, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! You're moving to Malibu?! This is going to be so much fun!"

Joe chuckled at her. "Yes, we're moving to Malibu. Is that we're you're from?" His smile widened at her nod. "So does this mean you want to be best friends?" In response, she threw her arms around him and gave him a huge hug.

"Wow, Jake may have been a complete jerk, but I have some great new friends because of the whole thing…there's you and hopefully your brothers, Mikayla-"

"Wait," Joe cut her off. He looked incredulous. "'If Cupid Had a Heart' Mikayla? The one who hates Hannah Montana?"

"It might seem weird, seeing as Hannah's my best friend but Mikayla can be really nice when she wants to be, and she's a really great friend," Lilly defended.

"I guess, but that's just…weird."

"Yeah…" Lilly thought of something and bit her lip. She considered it for a moment and decided to go for it. "If we're going to be friends, I guess there's something you should know…"

"What? Your middle name is Edward? You're really an alien from LazyTown? You have six toes on your right hand?"

"Six toes on my…what? No…none of those. I don't think…but what I guess you should know is that my name isn't really Lola. My name is Lilly Truscott. "

Joe thought for a moment. Lilly watched him warily. "I like it," he stated finally. "It suits you."

"You're not mad?" she asked.

"Nah. I'm sure you have your reasons. Although I am a little disappointed about not knowing a girl _actually_name Lola…I was going to sing Copacabana for you…you know, '_her name was Lola, she was a show girl…'_ No? Nothing?" he asked when Lilly stared at him blankly. Then she started cracking up.

"Being friends with you is never going to be boring, is it?"

Joe grinned and shook his head. "Nope. But I promise you, it'll be worthwhile." He asked for her phone and she gave it to him. He entered his number and then called his own phone so that he'd have hers. "So you can call me anytime you want. If you have a problem, or if you just want to talk about something random, I'll be here."

_All I can say is that my life is pretty plain  
I like watchin' the puddles gather rain  
And all I can do is just pour some tea for two  
and speak my point of view  
But it's not sane, It's not sane _

It was Lilly's phone. Joe smiled at the ringtone and he looked at the screen. "Who's MMkay?"

Lilly grinned. "Mikayla. I'd better take that."

Joe nodded and looked at the time. "Wow, I'd better go get showered. I didn't realize that we'd been here for that long…Come meet us in our dressing room later, okay? We'll all go to dinner!"

Lilly nodded and answered her phone. Joe walked out of the room smiling.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

Meanwhile, Hannah, Nick and Kevin sat in the boys' dressing room talking. The two boys had finished showering and changing and were just waiting for Joe and Lola to appear.

"So Hannah, what does Lola have against Jake Ryan?" Nick asked again. Since Lola wasn't in the room, Nick felt that it was now safer to ask this question, and he'd been wondering about it all during the concert. He hoped Hannah wouldn't hit him again…it really did hurt. And he'd hate to have her mad at him…she was so pretty…Uh, pretty good with the music and the…oh forget it…she was so pretty…_Focus, Nick!_ He berated himself. _Think Jake, and why people hate him_.

Hannah scowled. "Because he's a no good, lying, cheating, piece-of-crap scumbag."

Kevin blinked. "Well, that was descriptive… what did he do?"

"He broke her heart. He's a two-faced, two-timing, snake-in-the-grass cheater!"

"But…I thought he was dating Mikayla?" Nick commented.

"Exactly. And it just so happens that at the same time, he was dating Lola, too."

"Seriously? What a jerk! Who would do that to someone as awesome as Lola seems to be?" Kevin looked completely outraged.

Nick looked disgusted. "I always knew there was something wrong with that guy…he is so off our Christmas card list, right Kev?"

"We have a Christmas card list?"

Nick rolled his eyes. "Just go with it, will you?" Suddenly Joe burst into the room, and began frantically tossing things around looking for something.

"Dude, can you toss me a magazine with Jake Ryan's picture in it?" Joe called as he was rifling through his bag for a lighter. Joe didn't smoke, but he did like to play with fire…

Kevin looked at the pile of magazines in the corner of the room and tossed Joe one with advertising a "free Jake Ryan poster inside!". Joe flipped through the magazine, found what he was looking for and ran out of the room.

"Hey!" Nick called after him. "That's mine!"

"You subscribe to those?" Hannah questioned sardonically. Nick's cheeks heated up.

"Yeah, you know, for all the good articles about…about…" Nick couldn't think of anything, so he decided to change the subject and thought of the big news that his parents had dropped on them a couple of days ago. "Hey, Hannah, you're from Malibu, right?" Hannah nodded. "Well guess what? We're moving there!!"

Hannah's eyes lit up and she jumped up and down squealing, unintentionally echoing Lilly's reaction to the same news (they really _were_ best friends), "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! You're moving to Malibu?! This is going to be so much fun! This is going to be amazing! Are you gong to a private school? Where?"

"Seaview High."

"Adorable FroBro say what?" Hannah froze.

"Well, we had run into Jake while we were on tour and he suggested Seaview. He said that public schools really aren't that bad and that Seaview as actually really cool, so Joe and I are going there." Nick scowled. "Hopefully we won't run into him, or…let's just say that it won't be pretty. I mean, when Joe hears about the whole Jake thing, he's gonna flip! He thinks Lola is pretty awesome…"

Miley smiled. Nick was so sweet. And cute. This was definitely going to be interesting.

And maybe they could help her with Lilly. She desperately wanted to help out her friend, and she really believed that it would help Lilly get over Jake if she found another guy. Wait! That was it! She'd find Lilly's perfect guy! She already knew what Lilly was looking for, and maybe Joe, Nick, and Kevin could help her find him for her! Sure Kevin wouldn't be at school with them, but he could still contribute. She would need a guy's perspective on this. Oliver didn't really count. He knew Lilly too well and there was every possibility that he wouldn't like her plan…She didn't realize that Nick was still talking.

"…don't you think, Hannah?" Nick was asking.

Miley shook her head in an attempt to clear it and blinked. "Sorry, Nick, spaced out for a sec. What were you saying?"

She and Kevin listened to Nick talk excitedly about Seaview for a few minutes. Apparently he was really happy about going back to a normal school again. Miley smiled listening to him.

A few minutes later, Joe walked into the room, arms swinging and whistling happily. "Someone's happy…what'd you do with Nick's magazine?" Miley asked.

"We burned it," he answered with a huge smile.

"What?!" Nick jumped out of his seat.

"We?" Miley asked.

Joe beamed at her. "I met Lilly." Miley's jaw dropped.

"What?"

"I met Lilly. And she's great."

Nick and Kevin were confused. "Who's Lilly?" Kevin asked.

"My new best friend."

Miley was still stunned. "Since when?"

"Since I told her that we were going to be best friends," he answered cheekily. His smile faded. "She told me about Jake. When we get to Seaview, he is in so much trouble…"

"Did she tell you about the others, too?"

"Yeah. They're all idiots."

"Completely agreed. And did she tell you where she goes to school?" Joe shook his head. "She goes to Seaview!"

Another big grin broke out over Joe's face. "Seriously? This is great! What year is she?"

"She's a sophomore. You're a senior, right?" Miley asked.

"Yeah. That's so cool. We can hang out together! All the time!"

"Where is she, by the way?" Miley wondered.

"She's talking to Mikayla," Joe answered. "She'll meet us back here when she's done."

"Awesome! You'd better get showered! You _smell_, boy. Whoo!" Miley waved her hand in front of her face and scrunched up her nose. Joe playfully pushed her and made his way to the shower.

"Okay, then. So I'm gonna ask again…who's Lilly? And where's Lola?"

"Well…" Miley began slowly. "Lilly _is_ Lola. Or Lola is Lilly. Or…however you'd say it. And right now she's talking to Mikayla."

"The Mikayla that HATES you?" Nick looked disbelieving. "Some best friend…"

"Well, to be fair, Mikayla's one of my best friends, too…she just doesn't really know it." Miley was deliberately cryptic. She could see that Nick was completely bewildered and it looked absolutely adorable.

Kevin just rolled his eyes. "Alright, since we're making sense here…"

"I have something big to tell you when Joe gets done, but for now, let me tell you about Lilly." So Miley explained everything…about Matt, Lucas, and all the rest, up until Jake. By the time she was finished, Joe was showered and dressed and listening to the tail end of the story.

"You know what's funny? With the exception of Jake and Isaac, Lilly's boyfriends progressed in reverse alphabetical order…" Everyone looked at Joe like he was crazy. "Matt, Lucas, Kai…you know, M, L, K…"

"Are we related?" Joe stuck his tongue out at Kevin, who shook his head. "Real mature, Joe."

Joe opened his mouth to say something, but Nick decided to jump in before any arguments could get started. "So Hannah, you said you had something big to tell us?

"Yeah. You might want to sit down for this…" All three boys sat. "Well, the thing is, my name isn't really Hannah Montana."

The boys looked skeptical.

"It's true. Hannah's my stage name." Hannah pulled off her wig. "My name is Miley Stewart. I'm a sophomore at Seaview High. And maybe you can help me out."

**HMHMHMHMHM**

**Well, there's chapter three. I hope you liked it! And I hope you guys don't think that it's too clichéd that the JoBros are moving to Malibu and going to Seaview and all that…I know it's done a lot but it's the only way for my story to work. And like many people, I fudged on Joe's age, making him and Nick two years apart and so Joe is the same age as Jackson.**

**Oh! And the song Lilly and Joe sing is "Picture to Burn" by Taylor swift (which is FANTASTIC) and Lilly's ringtone is called "No Rain" by Blind Melon, which I always thought suited Lilly.**

**Thanks again for reading, and again, if you have any suggestions or constructive criticism are completely welcome! And if you want to just tell me to update soon, that works too!**

**So please, review! It makes me a happy panda. But flames make me sad, so none of those, please!**

**Thanks again for reading!**

**-v**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello, again! I'm back with chapter four! Yay! So, once again, thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited and/or added this story to your story alerts. It really makes my day. You guys rock! **

**This might have been up sooner, but I got distracted a story in my head that wouldn't go away, and now it's a oneshot (shameless plug) called "A Reason to Stay", and it'd be awesome if you guys wanted to check it out. But back to this story…**

**(Insert standard 'I-don't-own-Hannah-Montana-or-the-Jonas-Brothers-but-I wish-I-did-sigh' disclaimer here.)**

**HMHMHMHMHM**

Nick was still stunned about Hannah's revelation. Or rather, Miley's revelation. Miley. It was so strange thinking of her not as Hannah. Joe and Kevin seemed to take it all in stride. Joe even tried on her wig (and that was not a pretty sight). But Nick was having a hard time reconciling the fact that he didn't really know a thing about the girl of his dreams. While he would admit that Miley was much prettier with brown hair, he did have to wonder if he'd like who she was when she wasn't Hannah. It's not because Miley's normal side wasn't famous, but it was simply because he didn't know her.

One thing, though, that he really, really liked about her was the fact that she really cared about her friends. Especially Lol-er Lilly. He thought back to their conversation about her "plan" to help Lilly get over Jake.

_Nick was completely floored. He opened his mouth to say something, to react, but nothing came out. _

_Joe, of course, thought it was completely awesome and started asking her questions about Seaview and about how hard it must be to hide it all the time. He asked to try on the Hannah wig, and Miley let him. Then he started to go through a list of awkward situations that could arise from leading a double life, and…well, Nick just decided to tune him out. It was a little disconcerting looking at and listening to Joe while he had long blonde hair._

_Kevin was still in shock, too, but he hid it better than Nick did. He just tilted his head and looked at Miley, seemingly studying her._

_Once the three boys got over their shock (and Joe stopped rambling), Kevin asked Miley what they could help her with. _

"_It's Lilly," she replied. "She's still heartbroken over Jake –"_

"_It's only been a week, Hannah – er, Miley," Kevin interjected. "It takes time to get over someone burning you as badly as Jake did to Lilly."_

"_I know, but she's hurting so much, and she won't let anybody see exactly how badly she's hurting…Like, how she didn't want to cry in front of me earlier, and she didn't really want me to know that she was crying. So my idea is that maybe if we find her perfect guy, she'll be so happy with him that she'll forget all about Jake. "_

_"Miley, Lilly said she really doesn't want to date anyone anymore," Joe said quietly. "And I believe her."_

_"But she did tell me and Mikayla the other night that if she found the perfect guy she'd date him. And so I figured that since you guys were going to our school, you could help me find him. So will you?" Miley looked hopeful._

_"I don't know, Han-Miley," Nick said after a moment of silence. Her face fell. "We'll think about it, okay? And we'll let you know?"_

_"Yeah...we admire the sentiment, and we know that you want the best for your best friend, but so do I," Joe added. "But I don't know if forcing her to jump back into the dating scene is the right thing for her. I know I've only really known her a little while, but you can spot her bleeding heart from a mile away..."_

_"Hey, that sounds like a good song lyric," Kevin mused. "I mean, I agree with Joe. I don't know what I could do to help, but we'll let you know."_

_Before Miley could say anything, the door opened and pink-haired Lilly walked in. "Hannah, are you-" She broke off when she saw a wig-less Miley. And a blonde Joe. "What's going on?" Joe's blushed and snatched off the wig that he just realized he was still wearing._

_Miley smiled broadly. "Well, the Jonas Brothers are moving to Malibu..."_

_"Yeah...Joe told me." Lilly didn't see what that had to do with Miley's wig-lessness._

_"Oh, and did I mention that we're going to Seaview High? Your Seaview High?" Joe asked innocently. "So I guess Miley figured that we'd figure it out eventually so she decided to just tell us._

_But that last part was drowned out by Lilly's loud, piercing shriek of joy. "Seriously? SERIOUSLY?" Her smile was so bright it was almost blinding. Nick could see that Joe really liked seeing her happy. And Nick couldn't help but think that he wanted to see Miley that happy, too._

But here he was now, at his first day of real school since...well, it felt like forever. The girls didn't seem to be too crazy. Sure a few had pretty much accosted both him and Joe, but it seemed like the female population of the school was torn between them and Jake Ryan and so it muted the usual crazy girl rush.

His first class was okay. He had it with Lilly, Miley and a boy named Oliver, who oddly enough was his new neighbor. Unfortunately, Jake was in this class, too, and he had to resist the urge to hit the Zombie slayer or whatever the heck he was. Nick and Kevin had quickly developed a "protective brother" attitude towards Lilly and so just looking at the guy who had hurt her so badly made him angry. So Nick had spent the entire class alternating between sending death glares towards an admittedly miserable-looking Jake and staring at Miley and trying to figure out what it was he felt for her, and not Hannah Montana.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

After the first class of the day, Lilly was at her locker getting some of her books when she felt someone touch her shoulder. Expecting it to be Joe or Miley, she turned with a smile. It quickly faded when she saw that she was face-to-face with Jake; it was the first time she'd been this close to him since that day at Rico's. Sure they had their first class together, but they didn't actually have to interact. But now here he was, looking nervous and as completely miserable as she felt whenever she thought of him.

"Lilly," he said softly, after an awkward pause. "Can we talk?"

Even as her heart was breaking, screaming at her to say yes, she thought about what he had done to her and Mikayla. Her features hardened and her eyes turned cold. "We have absolutely nothing to say to each other, Jake." She tried to project an aura of indifference, but she wasn't sure if it was working.

"Lilly, please just let me explain..."

"There's nothing to explain, Jake! Just leave me alone." Her cool and calm exterior was becoming harder to maintain. All the pain from that day had come rushing back and she felt it multiply with every second she was spending in his presence. She turned to walk away but he grabbed her arm.

"Lilly," he pleaded as she tried to pull away from him. She didn't say anything, just struggled to get away from him.

"I love you, Lilly!" he cried in desperation. Lilly froze and she could feel the tears forming in her eyes. She desperately needed to get out of there.

"It's too late for that, just let me go!" She pulled away harder but he held firm. She just wanted to be gone, away from him, but it didn't look like that was going to happen.

"Is there anything wrong here?" A voice drawled sardonically. Lilly turned her head and sighed in relief. It was Joe. He was with Nick and they approached the former couple casually.

Jake glared. "We're having a private conversation here, Jonas. Leave us alone."

Joe raised an eyebrow and draped his arm around Lilly. Nick stood on her other side, leaning against the lockers with his arms crossed glaring at the blonde boy. Joe, on the other hand, looked deceptively calm. "Now what kind of best friend would I be if I did that? It looks like Lilly here isn't enjoying this 'private conversation' of yours overly much, so why don't you just move along?"

Jake looked outraged that someone was talking to him like this. Lilly thought it would have been funny if this whole thing was happening to someone else. Jake opening his mouth and closing it repeatedly like a fish should have been hilarious. But as it was, she was miserable, a headache was forming, and it looked like they were drawing a crowd. She could clearly see Amber and Ashley off to the side, whispering fiercely to one-another. Jake still had a hold on her arm and tried to pull her towards him.

"Come on, Lilly," he snarled, throwing a scowl at Nick and Joe. "Let's have this conversation elsewhere." She resisted, but Jake tightened his hold on her arm and pulled harder. She gave a small whimper of pain. A few tears escaped. Joe's eyes narrowed and he reached out and forcibly removed Jake's hand from her arm. Nick placed a comforting hand on Lilly's back. She tried to draw strength from her two new friends, but she was feeling so hurt and angry and miserable and she just wanted to cry. Joe put his arm around her and watched as her emotions flitted over her face; his heart ached for her even as his anger towards Jake grew.

When Jake looked like he was going to grab her arm again, Joe let go of Lilly and advanced towards the actor menacingly, backing him against the lockers on the other wall. "Listen, Jake. I know what you did to Lilly and Mikayla and I don't like it," he growled in a voice so low, only Jake could hear. "Lilly's important to me. I don't like seeing her hurt so I'm going to make this very, very clear. You don't talk to her, you don't even look at her, and God help you if you ever touch her again, got it?"

The crowd that had gathered around them stared in shock. They couldn't hear what Joe was saying, but he was…frightening. Joe Jonas didn't act like this, did he? He was the funny, crazy one...For his part, Jake cowered at this show of rage, and all he could do was nod timidly.

"Good," Joe said brightly, with a falsely cheery smile. "Now if you'll excuse me, we need to get to class. Come on, Lilly. Nick." And with that, Joe put his arm around Lilly again and led her away. Nick closed her locker for her and shot one last parting glare at Jake before following his brother and Lilly down the hall. The two boys walked Lilly to her next class.

"Are you okay?" Joe asked, concerned when they were outside her classroom. Joe had put his hands on her shoulders to stop her from going in. She still looked upset and her eyes were a little teary so he pulled her in for a hug.

Lilly nodded. "I am now, thanks to you guys. Thank you."

"We'll see you at lunch, right?" Lilly smiled, looking up at Joe. She nodded, pulled away to give Nick a quick hug and ducked into her classroom. She turned to give Joe and Nick a small wave before sitting down. They both waved back and walked towards their own classrooms.

It was only when they were well away from Lilly's class that Joe let the anger that had taken hold of him show. He was practically shaking with rage. He could see how much Lilly was hurting and how talking to Jake made it ten times worse. If there was a way that they could stop her from hurting...they had to do it. With a trembling hand he pulled out his cell phone and began texting someone.

"Who are you texting?" Nick asked curiously.

"Miley."

"Good." Nick nodded with satisfaction. He already knew what his brother was going to say. Joe sent the text and they both walked off to their classes.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

Miley was worried. Again. Something had happened. Her best friend radar could totally pick it up. As people came streaming into her second class, she heard snippets of conversation that involved "that skater girl" and "those super cute Jonas boys" and Jake Ryan. Uh-oh. That did not sound good. Oliver, looking both angry and tired, came strolling in a few minutes before class started and sat next to Miley.

"Ollie," she whispered. "Do you know what happened with Lilly?"

He looked disgusted. "I didn't see it, but Jake apparently cornered her by her locker earlier. He was trying to force her to talk to him and he wouldn't let go of her arm. Joe and Nick came by and there was this whole big scene between Jake and Joe, where, and I think this may be a _little_ exaggerated, apparently Joe threatened Jake with death. I can't believe Jake, trying to talk to her after what he did?"

Miley nodded in agreement.

"Anyway," Oliver continued. "Now some people are now speculating that Joe and Lilly are in a long term relationship and that she cheated on him with Jake and now there's this whole sordid love triangle thing going on. Honestly, the people in this school..."

"I just hope that Lilly's okay. That encounter can't have been good for her. I can't believe Jake thought that she'd actually talk to him after everything. He just needs to leave her alone so she can get over him." Suddenly her phone vibrated. It was a text message from Joe. Miley smiled broadly when she read it.

"What is it?" Oliver asked.

"It's a plan. I'll tell you about it later," Miley replied, still grinning. Oliver looked over her shoulder to see this _"_plan" from Joe but it only said two words.

_we're in_.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

"No," Oliver said, shaking his head for emphasis while they were walking to lunch.

"You know it's a good idea, Ollie!" Miley pleaded.

"Miley, as one of your best friends I need to tell you something: your plans usually suck." The brunette girl looked affronted. "Okay then, what about your plan to girlify Lilly? Setting me up with Becca? Your gum chewing plan to make me stop liking Hannah Montana? Your plan to get Jake to break up with you? Oh! And how about the one to get Mikayla fired from her movie? And the-"

"Okay! Okay, I get it!" Miley exclaimed. "It's just that, I really, _really _want to see Lilly happy again."

"I do, too, Miles, but are you positive that this is the best way to go about it?"

"Well, I figured that if I had you and the Jonases to help me, it would actually work out..." Miley pleaded. "Please?" She gave him the puppydog eyes.

Oliver sighed as he felt his resolve weakening. "I still don't know..."

"Well how about this...all you have to do is distract her at lunch today while the JoBros and I work out the details of the plan. Please?" Miley looked so earnest and so pleading that Oliver gave in.

"Fine! But if this backfires, I get to tell you 'I told you so' a million, zillion times," Oliver conceded.

"Yes! Thank you!" She threw her arms around him and gave him a big hug. "Now you go find Lilly and I'll find Nick and Joe. Keep her distracted for a while, okay?" Miley dashed off to find the brothers.

Oliver sighed again, rolled his eyes and went off to find Lilly.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

"Why are we in the library?" Joe whined. "I'm hungry!"

"You'll get your food soon, now hush," Miley scolded. "Here's the plan...Lilly has a list of the qualities that would make the perfect guy for her. And here it is." She handed the boys the lists. "There's an extra one for Kevin, too. So what I need you to help me with is to figure out which guys fit some of the things on this list. We'll choose the best one, get him to ask Lilly out and it'll be happily-ever-after after that! So what do you guys think?"

"Other than the fact that maybe you're a little naive," Nick started. "It might actually work. But only if she's receptive to the idea."

"I know!" Joe said. "Let's just test it out now! Um...let's see. Let's go with only a few of these qualities for now. How about athletic, smart, nice and tall?"

"Now where are we going to find him?" Miley asked. Joe straightened up as he noticed a boy from his first period AP Calculus class walk into the library.

"I've got it!" Joe jumped up and walked towards him.

Miley watched him approach the other boy. It was Evan Wenger, who happened to be a senior and the school's starting quarterback. "Aiming a little high there, and his hair is blond, but he's single so this could work..." Miley mused.

"Huh?" Nick asked. He was too busy staring at her to notice that she was actually saying something. "Oh, right! The plan."

Meanwhile, Joe had approached Evan.

"Hey, it's Evan, right? We're in AP Calc together?"

The blond boy smiled warmly. "Yeah. And you're Joe, from the Jonas Brothers." He leaned in to whisper, "Don't let this get around, but I'm a big fan of your music."

Joe laughed. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

"So I saw you with the Truscott girl earlier...Lilly?" Evan began. Joe was pleasantly surprised. Maybe this would be an easier lead-in than he thought. And Evan seemed like a pretty nice guy.

"Yeah, she's one of my best friends," Joe replied.

"So you're not dating or anything, right? It kinda looked like you were, but I wasn't really sure."

Joe laughed. It was weird to think of him and Lilly…_together_. "Oh no, we're not dating. She's actually single right now."

"Sweeeet. She's pretty hot, don't you think?" Joe was getting a little uncomfortable with this conversation. "I mean, sure she's a sophomore, but she's hot! Oh, sorry...you're her friend. You probably don't really think about her that way."

Joe laughed nervously. Suddenly Evan didn't seem so nice and he had the overwhelming desire to hit the football player in the nose.

"Anyway, you're her friend, so do you think she'd go out with me if I asked her?" Evan was looking at Joe expectantly.

_No! _Joe was internally screaming. _No, no, no, no NO!_ "She might," he answered with a false smile. He had to stick with the plan, and if going out with this..._baboon_ might make her happy, then he'd help. "She's actually at lunch right now if you want to go ask her."

Evan's eyes lit up. "Awesome, dude. Thanks!" He started to leave but then hesitated. "I know this'll kind of sound stupid, but will you come with me? For moral support?" The quarterback seemed genuinely nervous.

"Okay," Joe sighed. He followed Evan out of the library, discreetly signaling Miley and Nick to follow them. When they got to the cafeteria, Evan took a deep breath. "Listen, I'll wait here by the door. Go ahead."

"What if she says no?" Evan whispered.

"Then she says no. But at least you tried," Joe tried to sound reassuring, but he was really hoping that she would say no. He scanned the cafeteria and found Lilly sitting with Oliver and looking around the room for someone. Probably him, Nick and Miley. "She's over there." He pointed.

"Alright, I can do this." And with that he walked over to Lilly's table.

Joe really hoped she'd say no.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

Lilly, meanwhile, was really confused. Where were Miley, Joe and Nick? The two boys said they'd see her at lunch, and she and Miley always ate with Oliver. But they were nowhere to be found, and Oliver was acting incredibly nervous and evasive. Which, of course, meant that he was hiding something. She'd been trying to get it out of him for the last 20 minutes, but he wouldn't say a word about it.

Just then she noticed Evan Wenger, senior hottie and starting quarterback approach their table. Okay, now she was _really_ confused. She heard Oliver mutter something about aiming too high but before she could question him about it, Evan was at their table. Just standing there. Not saying anything. Oookay...

"Um...hi," Lilly said uncertainly. She thought that maybe he looked a little nervous and fidgety but she was sure she was just imagining that. He blushed. Okay, she was imaging that, too.

"Hi, Lilly!" He said eagerly. She was really surprised that he knew her name.

"Hi, Evan..." Where was this going?

"Um...so I was wondering if maybe...if maybe you'd like to go out with me sometime? Maybe Friday night?" Lilly gaped. Did the football star just ask her out? Her, _Lilly Truscott_, out on a date? She almost said yes right there from the shock of it all (and the fact that he looked adorably nervous) but even as the thought occurred to her she knew she had to say no. She wasn't dating anymore. Ever.

"I'm sorry Evan, but I just got out of a really bad relationship, and I really don't think I'm ready to date right now." He looked crestfallen and Lilly felt guilty.

"Joe didn't mention that," he blurted out.

"Joe? As in Joe Jonas?" He nodded.

"Did he encourage you to ask me out?" He nodded again.

"I'm really sorry about that. We must have gotten our wires crossed somewhere. I'm really not ready to date right now, but if I ever am, I'll let you know, okay?" He nodded, smiled sadly and as he walked away she saw him give a thumbs down signal to someone. Probably Joe. She was pretty sure that she was going to kill him.

"Ha!" Oliver's triumphant shout drew Lilly from her reverie. "I knew Miley's plan wouldn't work!"

Lilly's eyes narrowed. "Miley?" she asked dangerously.

Oliver slapped his hand over his mouth. "I didn't say that," was his muffled response.

"Plan?" If Lilly's eyes narrowed anymore, they'd be closed.

"I didn't say that, either."

Lilly glared. "Spill it, Oken."

**HMHMHMHMHM**

Joe was practically giddy with joy. She said no! Ha! Take that, baboon!

"Why are you so happy?" Miley grumbled. "The plan didn't work."

Joe struggled to subdue his glee. Why was he so happy, anyway? Lilly was still heartbroken. But at least she wasn't dating the baboon.

"Eh...Miley," Nick said nervously. "We have a problem." He pointed to Lilly, who was angrily making her way over to the door.

"Lilly!" Joe greeted.

She turned her death glare on him. "I'll deal with you, later." Turning to Miley, she said fiercely, "I told you I'm not interested in dating anyone anymore, Miley! And now I hurt a perfectly nice boy because you and Beavis and Butthead over here were too stubborn to listen! I'm not ready, Miles. I don't think I'll ever be ready! Why do you keep pushing it?"

"Because you're my friend! And I thought that maybe if you had another boy, you'd forget all about Jake because you'd be so happy with your perfect guy," Miley said sadly. She knew she probably shouldn't have pushed it, but..."I hate seeing you like this, Lills."

And just like that, Lilly's anger dissolved. She simply looked defeated. "I know, Miley. And I'm sorry. But this whole boyfriend-girlfriend dating thing is just probably never going to work out for me."

"But if you find the right guy, it might!" Miley persisted.

Lilly sighed. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"If you really, really want me to, I will," Miley said quietly.

"How about this?" Lilly proposed. "You get a certain number of chances to set me up with a guy, and that's it. If none of them work out, you'll drop it. Forever. Okay?"

Miley's smile could probably light up a room. "You won't regret this! How many chances do I get? 10?"

"Haha, noooo. Three."

"Seven."

"Five."

"Fine." But then Miley pouted. But then she squealed. "This is going to be great!"

"But-" Lilly interrupted. "You have a time limit. You have until Mikayla's movie premiere."

"Best friend say what?"

"I don't want you hounding me about this the entire school year. So you have until Mikayla's premiere."

"But that's only two months away!" Miley cried.

"Take it or leave it, Miles."

"Okay. And I promise, you won't regret this," she repeated.

"Good," Nick interjected.

"Can we go eat now?" Joe asked. "I'm still hungry."

**HMHMHMHMHM**

**So there's chapter four! Wooho! I hope you enjoyed it! The next several chapters are going to be about Lilly's dates…and how Joe reacts to them. There'll be a little bit of Niley and Mikoliver on the side, and perhaps someone for Kevin? This story is shaping up to be about 10-11 chapters in total.**

**But for real this time, I really won't be updating again until next weekend (after I get home for spring break, and as another side note, I turn 20 next Saturday!). But I promise there will be an update either next Saturday or Sunday, if my midterms don't kill me first.**

**As always, suggestions, predictions, constructive criticism, and asking me to update is always appreciated, but flames are not. So please review:)**

**Thanks for reading!**

**-v**


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm so sorry that I haven't updated before. I was traveling on Friday, my parents surprised my sisters and I with a Disneyland trip for my birthday on Saturday, Sunday an old friend came to visit and on Monday I had severe writer's block. But here's chapter 5 and I hope you like it!**

**And I can't tell you how much I appreciate the reviews, the story favorites and the story alerts. You are all so sweet, and it really just does make my day. So thank you again!**

**Thanks again for reading, and enjoy :)**

**(I still don't own Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers…but I'm working on it :-p)**

**HMHMHMHMHM**

"Sooo…how was the date?" Mikayla asked Lilly over the phone. It had been a little under a week since Lilly struck that deal with Miley. Miley told Mikayla about it and thought it would be good for Lilly to start dating again, but then again, she wasn't the one who had to be subjected to this torture.

"Ugh. He was nice," Lilly said in frustration. She was lounging on her couch on a Saturday afternoon. The night before she had gone out on her first of what she was terming, "The Miley Dates". The first boy was Chad, a junior from Nick's Algebra II class. And he was…well…let's just say the date didn't go well…

"Nice is good. Isn't it?"

"Yes, nice is good, but the boy couldn't make a decision to save his life! And he's completely spineless! He let me run all over him!"

"You know, some girls would like that in a guy," Mikayla mused.

"Yeah, well not this girl," Lilly grumbled. "Arguing is fun! I want someone who isn't just going to let me make all the decisions. And with Chad, I'd definitely have to make all the decisions."

Mikayla laughed. "It couldn't have been that bad."

"Oh believe me, it was. He picked me up at my house, and I'll admit…he was cute and he had a car. That was a major plus. But when I got in the car, he's all, 'Do you want to eat Mexican, Italian or Chinese?' I mean, don't most guys have dates planned ahead of time? I told him that he should choose and for the next ten minutes we drove around and he debated with himself the merits of going to each kind of restaurant."

"Not literally, right?" Mikayla asked.

"No, no. Literally. This was him: 'I'm really craving Italian food, but that Mexican place is really fantastic. But the Chinese restaurant has a better date-type atmosphere. And the food there is pretty good. But the Italian place has better food, although the prices are pretty steep but that Mexican place still sounds good. But it's usually pretty crowded at night and there aren't as many people at the Chinese restaurant.' For ten minutes, Mikay, TEN MINUTES! I timed it."

"At least you know he uses his reasoning skills? What did he end up choosing?"

"He didn't choose. I did. I told him to go to the next nice-ish restaurant we saw."

"Italian, Mexican or Chinese?"

"Russian. And I really don't like Russian food. But I was desperate to just GO somewhere."

"That really doesn't sound fun. What'd you guys do after?"

"I didn't want to do anything after. But he said we should go to a movie, and he's so nice that I didn't have the heart to tell him that he was giving me a headache and that I wanted to go home. So we watched a movie. The problem was choosing a theater. He almost started doing that self-debate…_thing_ again, but I just overrode him and told him to go to the theater near my house. He started talking about how maybe we should go to another theater but I pretty much just ordered him to go to the one I wanted. And he caved in. Immediately. Spineless, I'm telling you!"

"Did you at least see a good movie?"

"Yeah, when he finally chose one. Except it was really awkward because we were _really _uncomfortable with each other. I'd have had a better time going on a date with Oliver! I mean, yuck." Lilly shuddered.

Mikayla laughed nervously. "Haha, about Oliver…would it be really weird if, you know, one of your friends had a kind of, sort of…_crush_ on him?"

Lilly's eyes widened. Mikayla had a crush…on _Oliver?_ That was unexpected. "It wouldn't be _that_ weird," she said carefully.

"Well, you see…a friend of mine has a crush on him. Yes. A friend. And she was wondering if maybe he liked anyone and if maybe he could be convince to ask her out?" Mikayla sounded extremely nervous. It was actually really funny. Ha. _A friend_. Real smooth, Mikayla.

"So when did you start liking him?" Lilly asked innocently.

"I don't- it's not-I mean- how did you figure it out?" Mikayla sounded shocked.

"_A friend_ of yours has a crush on Oliver? Come on, Mikay, the only mutual friend we have that knows Oliver is Miley. And we know that she doesn't have a crush on him. Although it could be Jake…that would be awkward," Lilly mused.

Mikayla laughed. "Lilly! You just made a Jake joke!"

Lilly looked startled. She had just made a Jake joke, hadn't she? Weird…and she didn't feel the usual sting that came at the mention of his name. Well, there was a twinge, but not quite as strong as usual. Lilly shook herself from these thoughts.

"So you never answered my question."

"It's just that…he's so sweet and so NORMAL. I didn't realize until hanging out with you guys how nice being treated like a real person could be and, as absolutely fabulous as I am, I like being a normal person. It's like I can finally be _me_. And I'm never more _me_ than I am when I'm with him. Oh, and we talk every night and sometimes he even sends these little greeting cards to my house just to say that he appreciates having me as a friend and that he's glad I'm in his life and I hope that means he likes me, too, because if he doesn't I don't know what I'll do with myself!" Mikayla paused in her long rant and took a breath.

Lilly laughed gently. "You really do have it bad. Where's that confident, sometimes cocky, girl who's one of my best friends?"

Mikayla sobered. "She's there, but after someone cheats on you…"

"You start to doubt yourself," Lilly finished. "You wonder what it is that's wrong with you, and why you weren't enough for someone who made you so happy."

"That pretty much sums it up. I think with Oliver, it could be different. I think this could be something really special and I just…I want him to see that, too," Mikayla said sadly.

"He'd be crazy not to like you!" Lilly exclaimed.

"Will you find out for me?" Mikayla asked eagerly.

"Mikayla, we are so not in elementary school anymore. I really don't want to get in the middle of things. But I can tell you that there's not anyone here that he's really interested in…"

"That sounds promising…"

"It does, now, doesn't it? And I'm thinking that you should definitely come back to Malibu for a visit!"

"That would be awesome! But my schedule is so crazy right now, I barely have enough time to squeeze in this phone call! In a few weeks, though…"

"Yeah, you'd better-" Lilly started. She was interrupted by her front door opening and Miley, Nick, Joe, and Oliver sweeping in.

"Okay, so how did the date with Chad go?" Nick asked expectantly.

"Hold on," Lilly told him. She turned back to her conversation with Mikayla. "Hey Mikay, I gotta go. Call me again soon, okay!" After Mikayla said bye Lilly hung up and turned back to the group.

"Well?" Oliver asked impatiently.

"He's a great guy," Lilly said.

"Yes!" Nick cried. He looked triumphant.

"A great guy who I won't be seeing again," Lilly finished.

Nick's face fell. "What do you mean?"

"He's really nice, but he's completely spineless! I could walk all over him just like that, and that is really not what I'm looking for. There was no spark, no connection…and anyway, even if I did want to see him again, he probably wouldn't want to see me," Lilly explained.

"What did you do to him?" Oliver asked.

"I may have possibly mentally scarred him for life…" she said sheepishly.

"WHAT?!" four voices cried in unison.

"He's kind of a meek and gentle guy, and I may or may not have…yelled at him a little…or a lot. But he was so frustrating and he was giving me a huge headache and he wouldn't make any decisions and…UGH!"

"So date one was a no go…" Miley sighed.

"Nick, if you see him, can you tell him I'm sorry?" Lilly asked.

"Yeah..I just hope he doesn't hate me…he's my lab partner," Nick groaned.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly.

"Back to the drawing board," Joe said cheerfully.

Lilly just glared.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

It was Wednesday and Miley and Nick were sitting at lunch, scouring through their list of potential dates for their friend. Joe and Lilly were eating lunch together and Oliver had disappeared, so it was just Nick and Miley. And it was slightly awkward.

"So…" Miley began, blushing slightly at the fact that Nick was staring at her.

"So…" Nick repeated, blushing slightly at the fact that Miley knew he was staring at her. He just had a really hard time concentrating on finding a perfect guy for Lilly when he was starting to realize that his own girl of his dreams was sitting right across from him.

It still felt weird knowing that she was Hannah Montana, but knowing that she had two separate lives didn't really phase him all that much anymore…especially considering that she was the same kind of person when she was Hannah that she was when she was Miley. And after a couple of weeks of hanging out with her, he realized that he liked Miley…a lot.

"So do you have any other guys in mind for Lilly?" she asked him.

"I don't know if I'd be the best one to decide that after the whole Chad fiasco," he shuddered. "He'll barely even look at me now…"

Miley went through a couple of boys who were in several of their classes together when Nick interrupted.

"As much as I like and appreciate Lilly, have you ever thought about your own love life?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" She was definitely not following his line of thinking.

"Have you thought about finding a guy for you? I mean-" he took a deep breath. Miley was looking at him with a mixed expression of hope and trepidation. It was now or never, right? "Will you go ou-"

"Miley! Nick! I found the PERFECT guy!" Oliver came rushing to their table, shouting. "Did I interrupt something?" he asked when both Miley and Nick glared at him, blushing.

"What is it, Oliver?" Miley asked through gritted teeth. Oliver was startled at the force of her glare.

"I-uh-uh…I found the perfect guy for Lilly?" Oliver said hesitantly.

Nick groaned inwardly. "Who is it?"

"His name's Dave. He's a friend from my history class," Oliver answered.

"Wait," Nick said. "Dave Longoria? Isn't he a little…" He trailed off, looking for the right word.

"Boring?" Miley supplied.

"Well he might be a little dry but he likes to do a lot of the stuff that Lilly likes…he surfs and he loves the beach and stuff…And he has dark hair. I think they'll get along really well."

"If you think so…" Miley said skeptically.

"I do," he proclaimed confidently. "This'll definitely work."

**HMHMHMHMHM**

"This is definitely not working," Oliver groaned. He, Miley, Nick and Joe were attempting to (stealthily) follow Lilly and Dave on their date on Saturday afternoon. They had gone to the beach because it was at least some common ground, but as the foursome was discovering from listening to them talk, that was about all they had in common.

"I guess there's a reason they call him Dull Dave…" Miley muttered from behind the bunch of palm trees they were hiding behind.

"I know!" Joe exclaimed. "He has absolutely no sense of humor. That joke about the sleeping cow was totally funny!"

"If you say so," Nick mumbled. He was still upset with Oliver for ruining a key moment between him and Miley. And he was also upset with himself for not being able to muster up the courage to bring up the subject again. He glanced around at the group and sighed. Oliver was still berating himself for suggesting Dave, Miley's expression was a cross between amused, exasperated and frustrated and Joe was…Joe was watching the pair a little _too_ intently. Nick's eyes widened. Did Joe _like_ like Lilly? He'd definitely have to keep an eye on that…

"So Dan," Nick heard Lilly say. He slapped a hand to his forehead. Obviously she was bored. And she totally got the name wrong. "What else are you interested in doing?"

"I like to surf," he responded, not bothering to correct her on the whole name issue. "And I read."

"What kind of books do you like to read?" Lilly was obviously just trying to keep a conversation going.

"All kinds." There was an awkward silence, as she had been expecting him to say at least a little bit more.

"What kind of music do you listen to, Derek?" she asked after a while. Was Lilly really that bored? Nick wondered. Well, he certainly was. Dave and Lilly were obviously not clicking at all and it was getting painful to watch.

"I like all kinds," came the succinct response. But then, surprisingly, he added, "But not the Jonas Brothers. Their music is completely mindless."

Nick and Joe bristled. They were both pleased to see Lilly looking outraged on their behalf. "I think their music is amazing! What's so mindless about it?" She looked almost excited. It seemed as if they were going to get into an actual argument, and that, at least, would be interesting.

"I dunno. Whatever." And he fell silent again. Her shoulders slumped. Listening to their conversation, one would think that both parties were definitely not into each other and so it would have been easy to walk away…but Dave looked like he was really interested in Lilly, and it seemed to Nick as if that's what was making it hard for her to just end the darn date.

"Does he always talk like this?" Joe hissed.

"Maybe he's just nervous? He looks like he really likes her," Miley suggested helpfully.

"No, he's always like this," Oliver groaned. "What made me think that this would have even the slightest chance of working out?"

The four fell silent as they listened to Lilly tell another joke to try to lighten the mood and stimulate conversation. This time, the joke was about a cat that swallowed yarn or something, and again, there was no laugh.

In desperation, Lilly asked him what his favorite joke was. Big mistake. While Dave may have been smart and athletic, a comedian he was not. For the next ten minutes, Lilly (and the other four) listened as Dave tried to stumble through an incoherent joke and when he got to something that sounded like the punch line, Lilly laughed nervously.

"Okay, I can't take this anymore," Joe whispered to the other three. "I have to go save her…and the rest of us…" He got up and ran towards the pair.

"LILLY!" he called.

"JOE!" she responded. There was relief in her voice and her eyes lit up when she saw him. "What's up?"

"We have to go," he said.

"Why?" Dave asked. Joe blanked.

"Um…um…because…because…" Lilly looked at him with something akin to desperation in her eyes. "Because…her mom's on the home shopping channel right now, and it would mean the world to her if Lilly saw her debut, so…we have to go!"

Behind the trees, Nick, Miley and Oliver groaned. Was that seriously the best that Joe could come up with? Lilly's expression said that she was thinking the same thing.

"Um, yeah! I totally forgot about that…" Lilly looked at Dave apologetically. "Sorry, but I really can't bear to disappoint my mom. Being on the…home shopping channel has been one of my mom's dreams. Gotta go. It's been…it's been…it's a beautiful day, right? Bye, Devon!" She called out. Then she grabbed Joe's hand and the pair ran off in the direction of Lilly's house.

As soon as the two teens lost sight of Dave, they slowed down and collapsed in laughter. "The home shopping channel?" Lilly gasped through her laughter.

"I blanked," Joe explained. "But it worked, right?"

Lilly's laughter slowed. "I guess, so."

"So...do you want to go back home?" he asked.

She thought for a moment. "Can we just walk around for a while? I don't feel like answering my mom's questions about how my date went and blah blah blah."

"Sure." He took her hand again and blushed. They walked down the beach. "You know, you don't have to do this whole dating thing if you don't want to. I'll totally support you if you want to stop."

Lilly looked at him and smiled softly. "Thanks, but it's alright. I know it'll sound wrong, but it's actually kind of nice to be the one doing the rejecting rather than being rejected…"

Joe laughed. "I hear you. Come on, let's have some fun!" He tugged on her hand and they ran to play in the surf, running through the water and splashing each other until Joe decided to tackle her. They both went tumbling into the water and were pretty much completely soaked when a wave came up and washed over them. The two laughed hysterically.

Lilly stared up at him. He looked…beautiful. Before she realized it, he was leaning in. Her eyes widened, but she didn't move away. Her stomach fluttered. He was going to kiss her. Joe Jonas was going to kiss her, Lilly Truscott! He started inching closer when-

"Aww, aren't they the sweetest looking couple?" An older woman was walking down the beach with a man, and the other couple was looking at Joe and Lilly. The two teens blushed and scrambled away from each other.

"Oh, young love," the man said.

"Uh – we're not, I mean – it's…we're not – " Lilly stuttered. The older couple smiled benignly and moved on. Her face looked like it was on fire. Joe was blushing pretty strongly, too.

Lilly was inwardly freaking. He was about to kiss her. Her best friend. Did she like him? She had this sinking little feeling in her stomach that maybe she did. Well, this was awkward.

"Come on," Lilly said. "We'd better get back, or else we're gonna catch a cold. And I'd really hate for your fans to kill me because I got you sick." She shot him a grin, he took her hand, and the two walked towards Lilly's house.

When Joe took her hand, she felt a little fluttering in her stomach. Oh boy.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

Nick, Miley and Oliver watched Joe and Lilly run away. Oliver was repeatedly banging his head against a palm tree.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," he was muttering. Nick placed his palm between Oliver's forehead and the aforementioned palm tree.

"Dude, it's okay," Nick said. "Remember, I chose Chad and I'm pretty sure that was worse…not only did Lilly not like him, but because of that date he was probably scarred for life…"

"I guess so," Oliver muttered. He looked over and saw Dave still standing there, looking dejected. "I'd better go talk to him. Catch you guys later." He sighed and walked over to Dave. Miley and Nick watched as Oliver went over to the other boy and put his arm around him and led him away.

"So…" Nick started. This was the first time they'd been alone since their lunch conversation on Wednesday.

Miley laughed a little. "We really need to work on our conversational skills."

He laughed nervously. "I guess so." There was another awkward pause.

"So…" Miley said, then she giggled. "So that was sweet of you to comfort Oliver."

"Yeah, well he didn't really screw up any worse than I did when I chose Chad…" There was another awkward Silence

"So on Wednesday you were going to say something. What was it?" Miley asked.

Nick gulped. Okay, he could do this. He could do this. He could- Wow, her eyes were beautiful. "I, um, you see, I feel…I wanted to-Will you – I mean, I like-" Oh, gosh, he couldn't do this!

"Sweet niblets!" Miley muttered. She reached out, grabbed Nick by the collar and pressed her lips to his. After a few moments, they both pulled away with dopey grins on their faces.

"What I was trying to say," Nick said softly, lips still inches away from Miley's. "is that I like you, and will you go out with me?"

Miley giggled again and as she moved to press her lips to his a second time, she whispered, "I thought you'd never ask."

**HMHMHMHMHM**

A little while later, Miley and Nick were walking to Miley's house, hand in hand. They had spent almost the whole day just talking and getting to know each other better (because even after two weeks, they still didn't know each other fantastically well). As they walked back to Miley's house, she brought up the subject of Lilly again.

"I'm guessing she won't be seeing Dave again," she muttered.

"Considering she could never get his name right, I'm guessing that's a definite no," Nick laughed.

"But…I don't know any other guys who she'd be interested in," she sighed.

"I think I might…" Nick trailed off. He wanted to mention his thoughts about Joe to Miley, but at the same time did he owe it to his brother to not say anything?

"Who?" Miley asked.

Nick bit his lip and decided that if Joe really did like Lilly, Miley could help him. "Joe. I think he likes her."

"Cute, sensitive one say what?"

"It's just, he's had this soft spot for her for a while…"

"Well maybe something about her makes him get that protective, big brother attitude towards her."

"It's more than that…remember that first day of school? He pretty much threatened Jake and he seemed a little jealous of Evan. And then he was really eager to 'save' her from her date today."

"He's just a good friend," Miley explained.

"Yeah, but Oliver, you and I weren't jumping up to save her…"

"I-well, I guess not…"

"Yeah, and look!" he pointed across the street and Miley saw Joe and Lilly laughing, flirting and holding hands, walking towards Miley's house. They waved when they saw Nick and Miley. Woah…

"That's a new development…" Miley said, stunned. Oh wow. Maybe Nick was right.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

**So there's a little more Loe for you. I'll try to update again soon. I hope you guys enjoyed chapter 5!**

**As always, suggestions, predictions, constructive criticism, and asking me to update is always appreciated, but flames are not. So please review :)**

**Thanks for reading!**

**-v**


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry about the delay between updates. My break was a lot more hectic than I thought it would be…but here's chapter six and I hope it was worth the wait. Thanks again for all the reviews/favorites/story alerts and everything! They make me a happy panda. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy!**

**(In the last week, I didn't manage to get the rights to Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers…so I still don't own them)**

**HMHMHMHMHM**

Friday afternoon, Miley and the rest of the gang, minus Kevin, were sitting in the Stewart living room watching a movie. She was cuddling with Nick on the couch and they were holding hands. Oliver was sitting in an armchair near them and he had his cell phone out, probably texting Mikayla; they'd been doing that a lot. Lilly had her head on Joe's shoulder and his head was resting on hers. They were sitting on the floor in front of Miley and Nick and had apparently fallen asleep during the movie. They looked absolutely adorable.

"I told you so," Nick whispered in Miley's ear. She laughed and turned to give him a quick kiss on the lips. He smiled when she pulled away quickly and kissed her again. They traded kisses back and forth until in frustration, Oliver yelled at them.

"Dudes, I'm still here!" He looked disgusted.

"Deal with it," said Miley and went back to kissing Nick.

Oliver just grunted. Miley and Nick had been all couple-y all week and it was really getting kind of gross. Of course, had it been him and Mikayla…well, that would be a different story. But at least he had Lilly and Joe to commiserate in the single-ness with…or maybe not. He looked at the two on the floor. Wow, they really looked cozy. When had that happened? Sure they were always around each other…lately, Lilly had spent more time with Joe than she had with Miley and Oliver. He knew that Joe and Lilly weren't dating, but they definitely didn't look like just friends.

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. Since Miley showed no signs of getting up to answer it and Lilly and Joe were still asleep, Oliver sighed and got up to answer the door.

It was Kevin, and he looked really excited.

"I've found him!" he cried. No one responded. "Did you guys hear me? I've found him!" He looked at Oliver, who just shrugged and went to go sit back down on the armchair. Kevin made his way over to Miley and Nick. He hit them both over the head with a throw pillow. "Are you listening? I've found him!" he repeated.

Nick pulled away from his girlfriend with a frustrated sigh. "Do you not notice anything at all? Ever?" the younger boy growled. Miley giggled.

"Nope," Kevin replied cheerfully.

"We'll since you haven't noticed, we're busy here…so GO AWAY!" Nick shouted.

"No can do, Fro Bro. I've found the perfect guy for Lilly." The oldest Jonas looked smug.

"Then go and tell her." Nick pointed at Joe and Lilly, who managed to sleep through Kevin's commotion.

"Okay!" He grabbed the pillow that he'd been hitting Miley and Nick with and proceeded to attack Joe and Lilly. "Lilly! Lilly! I've found him!"

"Who? Someone who will finally sell you a Starbucks?" Lilly grumbled as she tried to get back to sleep.

"No, silly! Your dream guy! The guy to end all guys! Possibly the coolest guy ever, in the world."

"You date him, then," Joe mumbled. He sat up. He knew there was no going back to sleep when Kevin was in this kind of mood. Lilly snorted her agreement.

Kevin pulled a face at him. "Cute. But really, you'll love this guy! He loves skateboarding and surfing, he's tall, he's dark-haired, and he loves music. And most importantly, he's at least interesting."

"Where'd you find him?" asked Lilly suspiciously.

"The guitar shop I go to all the time. But don't worry; I've had him checked out and everything. He's a junior at a private high school and he's absolutely wicked on the guitar." His eyes widened a bit and he added, "Oh! And he's coming to pick you up here in a couple of hours. Wear something nice, because he said he'd take you somewhere_romantic_."

Lilly let out an incoherent noise. "Kevin! Give a girl a little time to get ready! Ugh! Miley, we have to go now!" She grabbed her best friend from a very unhappy Nick Jonas and pulled her up the stairs. Miley sent an apologetic look back at Nick.

He looked at Kevin. "I hate you right now."

**HMHMHMHM**

"So what do you think?" Gavin, Kevin's "perfect" boy, asked Lilly as they got to their destination. Lilly looked around and cringed. The restaurant, if you could call it that, was nothing more than a rundown, roadside diner. She bit her lip. She wasted a perfectly good sundress, for this? Well, maybe the food was really good?

Except it wasn't. If the diner looked bad, the food looked and smelled even worse. It didn't even really look edible. Oh boy…when he picked her up, this was definitely not what she expected. He drove a fancy car, went to an expensive prep school, dressed nice…why did he choose this place for date? Lilly asked him, hoping for some romantic story like his mom and his dad met here, or something like that, but no…

"It's the closest place I know of that sells funnel cake," he replied. "I love funnel cake. You know, the fried dough reminds me of the color of your hair…"

Lilly opened and shut her mouth, trying to say something but she couldn't quite get anything out. Probably because she wasn't quite sure how to take the compliment. It was a compliment, right? Well, maybe he meant that her hair looked greasy and crunchy. Or that she looked delicious? Either way, it definitely did not look promising.

"Thank you?" Lilly she said weakly. Gavin looked really pleased with himself and she sighed. She couldn't be rude to him. Like the other two guys, he was genuinely nice. And he really was trying. The idea of calling Joe and asking him to get her crossed her mind. But she looked across the table at Devon and he looked so earnest and hopeful that she decided to give him a shot. So maybe the location wasn't fantastic and the food didn't really look edible, but maybe this could turn out to be a great date!

"So I hear you like skateboarding?" Lilly asked, trying to get conversation started.

He smiled. "Yeah! But only in video games. It's waaaaay too hard in real life."

Inwardly, Lilly sighed. Well, there goes one thing she thought they had in common. She tried to get to know him. Kevin was right about one thing…the guy was interesting. He'd done all sorts of things, traveled around the world, and just had so many different experiences in life. But there was absolutely no spark between them. And whenever he tried to compliment her, it just got awkward. And he tried to compliment her a lot. It seems that he was encouraged by her tepid response to his first one.

Forty-five minutes later, Lilly came to two conclusions: 1) She and Gavin had absolutely no future together and 2) she was never letting her guy friends choose dates for her again. Ever. And now she had a headache. Plus she was hungry. Yeah, they were at dinner, but that chicken noodle soup she ordered didn't really look edible. Lilly was pretty sure that it wasn't supposed to be green. She discreetly took out her phone and texted Joe.

_Come get me. Please? And bring food!_

A few minutes later Joe responded with the affirmative, so she sent him her location. Lilly smiled apologetically at Gavin, who was looking at her expectantly for a response. Apparently he had just said something.

"I'm sorry, Gavin, but I'm not feeling very well. I think I'm just going to go home."

"But…but you haven't had the funnel cake yet!"

"I know, but I'm just not feeling quite up to it…It was really nice meeting you!" Lilly said cheerfully.

"It was nice meeting you, too!" He looked a little disappointed, but just then the waitress brought his dessert to the table and he forgot all about her. "Bye!" he said quickly and turned to his food. Lilly rolled her eye, got up and went outside to wait for Joe. He was there five minutes later.

She jumped into his car and sighed.

"Date didn't go so well?" he asked as he tossed her a candy bar. She may have just been imagining it, but she thought he sounded hopeful.

"Ugh, your brothers and Oliver are never choosing dates for me ever again," she proclaimed as she ripped open the candy wrapper and bit into the treat.

Joe laughed and it made her heart flutter just a little. _Stop it_, she told herself. She'd been feeling strange around him all week. She tried to convince herself that it was just her imagination…but the more time she spent with him (which was a lot of time), it was getting harder and harder to do.

As Joe pulled out of the parking lot of the diner, he tilted his head and said, "Hey, I know this place! They have _the_ best funnel cake!"

Lilly really wanted to hit him.

**HMHMHMHM**

"Owwww!" Joe cried as he rubbed his arm where Lilly had just hit him. "What was that for?" He, Nick, Lilly, Miley and Oliver were in a van, which Kevin was driving.

"Oh, I don't know…maybe for sneaking up behind me, blindfolding me, then stuffing me in a car to drive to God knows where."

"Oh…" Joe said. "That…I told you it was a surprise!"

"Yes, but did you have to kidnap me to surprise me?" Lilly demanded.

"Well no, but…It was Kevin's idea!"

"Hey!" came Kevin's indignant reply from the driver's seat. Oliver was sitting up front with him. "It was my idea to surprise them! It was _your_ plan to abduct them."

Joe pouted sourly in the middle section of seats. It was Kevin and Oliver in front, then Joe and Lilly in the next seating section, with Miley sitting in the way back with Nick. "It seemed like a good idea at the time…" he muttered. "And besides, you don't see Miley hitting Nick, do you? And she's blindfolded, too!"

"Joe," Lilly said, as if to a small child. "I don't see Miley hitting Nick because I can't _see_ anything! And he's probably keeping her too occupied for her to want to hit him…" Joe vaguely thought about keeping _her _ occupied that way, but he quickly shook it off._Well, that was awkward.._ he thought.

Oliver looked back to confirm his friend's suspicions. "Eww, do you guys have to do that _everywhere_? You're lucky you're in the back where I don't have to see you…" he yelled towards the back seat.

"Wait," said Lilly slowly. If Joe had known her longer, he would have realized that it was a very dangerous tone of voice. "Oliver can see?"

"Hehe…about that…OWWW! KEVIN! SHE HIT ME AGAIN!" Joe shouted.

"You sat next to her," the oldest Jonas reminded him, not taking his eyes off the road.

"Yeah, but that's because you wouldn't let me drive or have shotgun."

Kevin winced at Joe's whining and rolled his eyes. "Tough luck. And Lil, Oliver can see because A) this is a surprise for the girls. And B) he's the navigator. And no, Joe, I wouldn't have let you be navigator either."

Joe just sat pouting again. "How long till we get there?" he asked.

Oliver was the one who responded. "Maybe about forty-five minutes? We've only been driving for fifteen…"

"You mean I can't see anything for almost an hour? What am I supposed to do til then?" Lilly complained.

"Wow, you and Joe whine…a lot," commented Oliver. Lilly shot a glare in the direction of his voice.

Kevin interjected before a fight could start. "You could always sleep…or hit Joe..." Another yelp from Joe told him that she had taken the latter piece of advice. He chuckled.

Almost an hour later, Oliver announced, "We're here!"

"Finally!" Lilly cried. "Miley, Nick, come up for air!" She reached behind her head to untie the blindfold when Joe slapped her hands away.

"Not yet!" he admonished. Lilly grumbled and got out of the car, and Joe came around and took her by the shoulders to lead her somewhere. "Wait! Put these in!"

He placed a set of earphones in her hands and she obediently put them in (after muttering under her breath about what she was going to do to Joe when the blindfold came off…and from what Joe could hear, it didn't sound pleasant). He pressed play on his iPod, which the earphones were attached to, and led her by the shoulders to their destination. After about 15 minutes of walking, they finally stopped. Joe took the earphones out and whispered softly in her ear.

"Now we're here." She shivered slightly at the feel of his breath on her neck and her ears were assailed by sounds of laughter, chattering and excitement. Joe untied the blindfold and her jaw dropped.

"You took us to Disneyland!" she exclaimed. She repeated the statement again, as a question this time. "You took us to Disneyland?"

Joe just shrugged. "We knew you guys hadn't been in forever, and we thought it was a shame because you live so close…so here we ar-" he was cut off by Lilly throwing herself in his arms. Joe reveled in the feeling.

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!!" she squealed.

He laughed at her. "Well, it was Kevin's idea." As soon as the words left his mouth he regretted it as Lilly detached herself from him and went to hug Kevin, who chuckled.

"There's one more surprise," Kevin told her.

Oliver looked confused. "What? I thought it was just…" he trailed off as he looked in the direction that older boy was pointing. There, trying to graciously fight her way out of a crowd of fans was Mikayla! He was pretty sure his entire world lit up right then and there as she broke free and jumped in front of them with widespread arms.

"SURPRISE!!" she shouted. Mikayla let out a yelp as Oliver scooped her up in his arms and spun her around. She giggled when he put her down. "Hi, Ollie."

"Hi," he responded, smiling ear to ear.

"Hey, Mikay!" Apparently Miley had pulled herself from Nick long enough to greet her friend with a hug.

"Hi, Mi!" Mikayla responded.

"How come I don't have a cool greeting with my name in it?" Lilly pouted.

"Chill, Lil. Oooh, that rhymes. There you go!" Mikayla looked really pleased with herself and Lilly glared playfully, then laughed and gave her friend a hug.

"It's been too long!" said the blond girl.

Mikayla laughed. "We talked yesterday!"

"And you didn't say anything about this!"

"Duh! It's a surprise! Kevin called the other day and he mentioned that you guys were talking about how you wished I could visit again and he arranged everything with my manager so that I could come out here!"

Lilly ran to Kevin and hugged him again. So did Miley and Oliver.

"You really are the best," Lilly told him, smiling up at him. Joe, watching the little exchange, felt a twinge of jealousy. He had helped, too, and Lilly didn't call _him_ the best. And if his brother didn't get his arm off her soon…well, he was definitely going to have to do something drastic. Uh…because no one should handle his best friend that way and stuff…it wasn't because he _liked_ her or anything. He didn't like her, did he?

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Lilly shouted, and arm in arm with Miley and Oliver (who had linked arms with Mikayla), she ran towards the entrance to Disneyland. The Jonases laughed and followed quickly behind them. They were semi-disguised so that when people passed them by, they thought that they resembled the Jonas Brothers, but weren't sure so they shrugged it off. These disguises consisted of wearing glasses for Kevin and Joe, and hats for all three. The presence of Oliver also threw fans off because they were so used to seeing the Jonas Brothers as a trio, that if there was a fourth guy with them they didn't pay attention to the boys as much.

As they entered through the gates of the park, Kevin looked over his younger friends fondly. He was glad they were happy and he was glad that he was a big part in making them happy…it just sucked that he was probably going to feel a little left out the entire day. Not that he didn't want to see his brothers (and Oliver, who was now practically like a brother) happy…it was just that everyone was paired off. Nick and Miley were a couple. Mikayla and Oliver were almost a couple. And Joe and Lilly…well, he didn't quite know what they were, but they were definitely something that was probably more than platonic. He had noticed it when Joe had rushed out of the house like the hounds of hell were after him when Lilly texted him to pick her up over a week ago. And now that he was looking at them carefully, they were far closer and far more affectionate than most friends were. Most guy/girl friends that he knew didn't hold hands unless there was something between them. He looked at Oliver and Mikayla, who were holding hands. That proved his point.

Kevin sighed and followed his friends. The ended up having to stop fairly quickly because Miley needed the restroom and Lilly and Mikayla went with her. _Girls_, he thought. While Joe, Oliver and Nick sat on a railing and discussed what they were going to do for the day, Kevin paced in an attempt to get rid of his very weird mood. He didn't know why, but he was feeling pretty lonely. Not that he'd tell his brothers this, of course. He didn't want them to feel bad for him or anything. His thoughts were interrupted when someone crashed into him from behind.

He turned and saw that it was a girl. A pretty girl. A pretty girl who looked to be around his age…She had curly, dark red hair that ended at about her chin and she was average height. She came up to his shoulder. She wasn't drop dead gorgeous, by any means, but she was pretty. And there was just something about her that made his heart beat a little faster. It was like there was an instant connection. Kevin reached out to steady her when it looked like she was about to fall over.

"Thanks," she said breathlessly Even her voice was nice. Soft, soothing…. "And sorry about that."

"No problem," he replied with a smile. She began looking around and let out a frustrated groan.

"I can't believe they left me!" she exclaimed.

"Who?" Now he was confused…

"My friends. I came with them today because my one guy friend is totally into with my best friend and she's completely head over heels for him. But she asked me to come with them to Disneyland so they wouldn't be completely awkward around each other, but they left me!" The girl sighed. "Well at least I won't have to follow them around watching their 'will they, won't they' game. Seriously, we're 19 years old. We're not in high school anymore…"

Kevin laughed. He knew exactly what she meant. But in his case, his friends still were in high school… "Sorry about your friends."

"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry I just dumped all that on you. You must think I'm completely crazy."

"No!" Kevin denied. "Not completely crazy…only a little crazy."

She laughed, too. "Well, I'm kind of glad my friends left me. When I'm with them I always feel like such a third wheel, you know? Like, I'm happy for them, but it just gets…lonely."

"Believe me," Kevin commiserated. "I know exactly how you feel. I'm here with one couple and two quasi-couples. It gets a little sickening."

"I know!" She sighed again. "Ugh, now I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't really feel like wandering the park by myself, but they were my ride…"

"You could hang out with us!" Kevin suggested happily. "Please?"

The girl hesitated. "I want to, but…I don't know you."

He smiled reassuringly at her. "We're in a public place, my brothers and their girls are with us, and you can walk away at any time. Please? We can commiserate in the un-coupleness together."

She bit her lip, then nodded. "Why the heck not? Okay!" She held out a hand to him. "I'm Chrissy. I'm a sophomore at UCLA." she said, looking him in the eye for the first time. A spark of recognition flashed across her face and her eyes widened. "Oh. My. Goodness. YOU'RE KEVIN –"

He clamped a hand over her mouth to quiet her. He looked around quickly and was relieved to see that no one was really paying attention to him. Except for his brothers and Oliver. Greeeeeeeeat….He looked back at the girl, Chrissy, and held a finger to his lips. She nodded behind his hand.

"Oh my goodness," she said, quieter and leaning in. "You're Kevin Jonas!" He had to laugh. She was just too cute…

"Yep." He leaned in to whisper, "I'm Kevin Jonas." She mocked glared at him. In a normal voice, he said, "So you'll hang with us?"

"Absolutely! And not just because you're a Jonas Brother…" Chrissy slapped a hand over her mouth. Kevin heard a muffled "Oops," and he laughed again. "Sorry," she whispered.

Just then, Miley and the rest of the girls came out of the restroom. "Hey Kevin," Miley said cheerfully. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Chrissy. Do you mind if she hangs out with us for the day?"

"Not at all! Hi Chrissy! I'm Miley!" Miley waved at the older girl.

"I'm Lilly!" The blonde said with a smile.

"And everybody knows that I'm fabulous!" Mikayla blinked when everyone just stared at her. "Fine, fine…I'm Mikayla!" She smiled, too.

"It's great to meet you all!" Chrissy said enthusiastically. The other boys came over to introduce themselves and soon they were on their way.

"Where to first?" asked Lilly.

"Pirates!"

"Space Mountain!"

"Haunted Mansion!"

"Splash Mountain!"

Lilly looked at the four who had responded all at once. Mikayla and the Jonases looked at each other.

"Why don't we walk around the park and go in order of whatever we come to first?" Chrissy suggested. They all though it was a good idea.

Miley consulted the map. "Let's start at…Jungle Cruise!"

As they walked toward Adventureland, Miley and Nick walked up front, followed by Mikayla, Oliver, Lilly and Joe. Apparently, all animosity Lilly had been feeling for him hat morning had disappeared as she had her arm linked in his. Kevin and Chrissy brought up the rear.

"So who's the real couple? Joe and the blonde girl?" Chrissy asked.

Kevin laughed. "Actually, it's Miley and Nick. But any of the three of them look like they could be a couple."

"They're all cute together. But Joe and his girl are the cutest."

"Just don't tell them that…" Kevin said. "I don't even know if they even know that they like each other. Whenever Lilly goes on dates, Joe gets really jealous and he doesn't even know why!"

"They're totally MFEO."

"MFEO?"

"Have you never seen_Sleepless in Seattle_?" Chrissy asked incredulously.

"Can't say that I have…"

"They're Made For Each Other. Come on, let's catch up!"

The line wasn't too bad. Only a five minute wait, and they talked and took pictures to keep themselves amused. Then, on the ride Joe almost got them kicked out when he stuck his hand out of the boat and pretended that he was being eaten by a piranha. The Jungle Cruise tour guide was not amused. Other than that, though, they had a fantastic time.

The group decided to mainly focus on the rides, rather than trying to go see shows, too, so they went on Indiana Jones next, then Pirates, then Haunted Mansion. After, they hit up Splash Mountain and stopped for lunch. Then it was time for Big Thunder Mountain and It's Small World (before the ride was over, Kevin was contemplating sticking his head in the water and drowning in it…). They finished up the day in Tomorrowland, hitting up Autopia, the Buzz Lightyear ride and finishing it off with Space Mountain.

Lilly just had to buy her and Joe's picture from Space Mountain. In it, she was screaming, her eyes wide and her mouth open. Behind her, Mikayla had her face hidden in Oliver's shoulder and the boy was blushing. But it was Joe whose face was absolutely classic. He looked terrified. He had come out of his seat as far as he could and he was clinging on to Lilly for dear life. It was priceless. She bought a copy for both of them.

The seating order of the day was pretty standard. It was always Miley and Nick, Kevin and Chrissy, Oliver and Mikayla then Joe and Lilly. Sometimes Oliver, Mikayla, Joe and Lilly would switch it up a bit, but Joe always complained about it so it didn't happen often.

They were pretty tired after the last ride, as they sat on the curb of the little island with the statue of Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney. They were eating dinner and waiting for the fireworks to begin; the girls were comparing pictures and the boys were horsing around and making fun of each other. Fireworks didn't start for another half hour, so Kevin and Chrissy got up to get some cotton candy.

"I so should invite her to the premiere!" Mikayla said as the older pair walked away. "She's so nice."

"I know! I'm really glad Kevin met her, and who knows? They could totally be more than friends!" Lilly was practically giddy at the prospect of a nice girl for Kevin. He was so awesome, just like the big brother she never had. She had a little brother who lived with her dad, but that was totally not the same.

"Oh, and speaking of the premiere, you guys can totally bring dates if you want," Mikayla told them.

"Are we invited?" Joe asked excitedly. She laughed merrily.

"Duh!"

"Sweet! I know who I'm bringing!" Nick shouted, putting his arm around Miley.

"I don't," Oliver muttered under his breath. Mikayla heard him.

"Don't worry about it," she said. "You're not allowed to bring a date, anyway."

Not for the first time that day, Oliver was confused. "Um…okay. But why not?"

"Because you're going with me," Mikayla replied, biting her lip. "As my date." Although she said it confidently, as a statement, everyone could see that she was nervous. Really nervous. She waited to see Oliver's reaction.

A shy, but huge, grin spread over his face. Mikayla smiled back, and he went to hug her.

"Awww," Miley, Nick, Joe and Lilly said in unison. "How cuuuuute!"

Mikayla stuck her tongue out at them. "By the way, Miley, I was wondering if you wanted to go as Miley or Hannah…"

"Definitely Miley, then I can go with – what did you just say?" Miley's eyes had widened and she went pale.

"Please, Miles, the Hannah disguise might be alright, but your dad's definitely isn't. The mustache? Doesn't really hide much…" Mikayla looked at the other girl skeptically. "It didn't take long to figure it out."

"You're not mad, are you?" Miley bit her lip nervously.

"No. I was at first because I thought you guys were just being mean and trying to trick me, but it didn't feel like you were like that. I completely understand why you didn't tell me."

"So do you still hate Hannah Montana?" Lilly asked playfully.

"Of course! But I do love Miley!" She held out her arms and she and Miley hugged. "Friends?"

"The best!" Miley stated emphatically.

"I hate to break up the love fest," Kevin interrupted. "But the fireworks are starting soon!"

Nick, Joe, and Lilly, who had still been sitting down, scrambled to their feet to view the show. Nick put his arm around Miley and Oliver did the same with Mikayla. He even leaned over and gave her a soft kiss on the head. Joe stood behind Lilly and put his arms around her, resting his chin on her head. Kevin thought they all looked adorable. His thoughts were interrupted when a hand reached for his. He looked at Chrissy and smiled, then turned to watch the show.

Life was definitely good.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

**Okay, that last part was a little corny, but I wanted to end on a happy note. It's kind of a long chapter, so I hope you guys like that. The real Loeness will start soon. Like in the next chapter or so. Only three or four chapters left! **

**Chrissy is named after the fabulous Vanillastar. I hope you guys like that Kevin has someone! **

**As always, suggestions, predictions, constructive criticism, and asking me to update is always appreciated, but flames are not. Please review:)**

**Thanks for reading!  
-v**

**(ps. I love Disneyland. I got to go twice over break and I really wanted to incorporate it into the story. So that's where that idea came from...)  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Here's chapter seven! Yay :) Hopefully I didn't miss too many spelling/grammatical mistakes. But it's late, and I just want to get this posted…so if I did miss anything, sorry! We're in the home stretch now, with only one or two more chapters to go, so I just wanted to say thank you once again for all the wonderful reviews and thanks to those of you who put this on their favorites/story alert list! You guys are awesome!**

**Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy!**

**ps. I can't think of any clever/cute ways to say that I don't own Hannah Montana or the Jonas Brothers, but…I don't own Hannah Montana or the Jonas Brothers. Sad, I know, but true.**

**HMHMHMHMHM**

"You're probably wondering why I summoned you all here today," Miley addressed the room solemnly. "But today, we must embark on a mission of utmost importance. It's a very serious matter, and it is one we should not take lightly. This mission will be dangerous, but I feel that if we persevere-"

"Um…Miley? What's with the formal speech?" Nick interrupted. It was the day after their Disneyland trip, and he was sitting on the couch in the Stewart's living room between Kevin and Oliver. Mikayla was sitting in the armchair. She had the next week off to just hang out in Malibu.

"Excuse me, but I'm trying to hold a serious meeting, here!" Miley stated, clearly annoyed at being interrupted. Nick slumped back in his seat.

"Sorry," he said meekly. "But do you really have to talk like that? It's kind of creepy…"

"Ugh, fine, ruin my fun!" Kevin and Oliver just rolled their eyes. "Anyway, I'm sure you've all noticed the sparks between Lilly and Joe."

"Ha! A _blind_ person couldn't miss them," Mikayla muttered. Miley shot her a look for interrupting. "Sorry…continue."

"Anyway," Miley continued. "We need to come up with a way to convince Joe to ask her out."

"Why does Joe have to ask her out?" Nick asked.

"After Jake, do you really think that Lilly's going to take that kind of risk again?" Miley looked appraisingly at Oliver, who had spoken. When did he get to be so intuitive? "Hey!" he added when he saw the look his friend was giving him "I can be smart, too, sometimes!"

"Back to the topic at hand," Kevin commanded, circumventing any precipitating argument. "How can we get Joe to ask her out when he doesn't even realize that he likes her?"

"How do you know that he likes her?" asked Jackson as he entered the room and made his way to the kitchen. Apparently he had been listening to his conversation.

"Anyone with eyes can see that he does- wait. What are you doing here, Jackson?" Miley glared at her brother, upset with him for interrupting their meeting.

"I live here," was his simple response. "But I ask again, how can you know that Joe likes Lilly if he doesn't know himself?"

"He gets jealous when she goes on dates with other guys," Miley said. "Heck, he even looked jealous when Kevin had his arm around her."

"Not only that, but he's been drawn to her since the first time he met her," added Nick.

"And he's willing to jump up and stop whatever he's doing, just for her," Oliver stated further. "When he went to go pick her up last Friday, we were in the middle of a pretty intense round of DDR. He just up and left without a word when he got her text message."

"When they're together, they have this really easy and affectionate way that they touch each other, hold each other. I haven't seen her like that with any of her guy friends…" Mikayla piped up. "Not Kevin, not Nick, not even Oliver who's been her best friend forever."

Kevin smiled. "And it's the way he looks at her, when he thinks no one is looking. His eyes light up and he just looks…happy. Completely happy. And complete."

"Wow…" Jackson said after a moment. He was now standing by the staircase, a drink in his hand. "You really are the romantic one…why don't you guys try to make him jealous?"

"Um…she's been on three dates and he hasn't said anything about his feelings so far," Miley pointed out.

"Yeah, but have they been guys who actually had a chance with her?" her brother asked. Everyone was silent for a few minutes.

"What do you mean?" Miley finally spoke.

"Well, I know that when a girl I like is talking to a guy who she would never actually date, I'm okay with it. I'm not jealous, I'm not upset…but if she was talking to somebody who she could really like, say…a football player or something…well, then I'd feel threatened. I'd feel like I'd to do something before I lost her. That might wake him up. Think about it." And with that, Jackson disappeared up the stairs.

"Did that actually just happen? Did Jackson say something insightful?" Oliver looked perplexed, and Miley felt the need to defend her brother.

"He can be smart sometimes, too! Anyway, it's a really good plan."

"Except where are we going to find a suitable guy?" Nick pondered. "It's not like fate's gonna send one to come knock on your door or anything…"

The doorbell rang just then and Miley shot a glare at Nick as she went to go answer it. She opened the door and smiled broadly. "Thank you, Fate!" she quipped. Opening the door wider, the rest of the gang saw that it was Evan, the quarterback from school.

"Hi, are you Miley?" he asked nervously.

"Yeah. Hi, Evan."

He smiled. "I hope this won't come across as creepy, but I heard that you and some friends were looking for potential boyfriends for Lilly Truscott…and I was hoping that maybe you'd consider me?"

Miley smiled reassuringly at him. He was so sweet! He may have acted all cool and collected at school, but inside he really was just adorable. "Yeah. Yeah, of course. We were actually just talking about candidates for her next date."

Evan seemed to gain confidence from this and he said, "Well I'd like to be her next day. And hopefully the last one you set her up with."

"Okay," Miley agreed with a grin. Then her face fell. Evan seemed like such a nice guy. She couldn't use him like that. "There's just one thing though…She's kind of already interested in someone else."

"Oh." He was quite for a minute and averted his eyes. Then he looked back at her. "Can I ask her anyway?"

"If you really want to," she answered, biting her lip. She still felt a little like she was using him, but he was volunteering…

He immediately brightened. "Great! I'll ask her tomorrow! Until then, could you not say anything to her about it?"

"I won't. Good luck!" Miley told him as he turned to leave with a cheery wave. She turned back to the assembly in her living room. "Looks like we found our guy."

"Let's just hope this works," Mikayla muttered.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

The next day, Lilly and the rest of the gang were eating lunch in the cafeteria when Evan came up to their table. It was reminiscent of the first time she ever spoke to him. He was adorably bashful and he was even blushing a little.

"Hey Lilly."

"Hi, Evan!" she greeted him smiling brightly.

"Evan," Joe said, a little brusquely.

The other boy responded in kind. "Joe." Then he turned back to Lilly. "Can I talk to you alone for a sec?"

She was a little confused, but she nodded. She got up and followed him to a quiet corner of the cafeteria.

Joe scowled after them. "What does he want?"

"He's date number four," Nick responded.

"What?" the older boy spluttered. "The baboon?"

"Baboon?" Oliver asked confused. "I thought you guys were friends. Didn't you guys and some other people go to the movies together a few weeks ago?"

"That is completely besides the point! Why did you choose _him?_" Joe whined.

Miley shrugged. "He asked." This was working out better than she thought it would.

"And you said yes? He's completely wrong for her!"

The brunette girl raised an eyebrow. "Really? How so?"

"Well...well…" Joe floundered around for an answer. "He's a jock! And she's not the kind of girl that likes jocks."

"She did used to be a cheerleader," Oliver pointed out. "Evan's your friend. Why don't you want him dating Lilly?"

"Unless there's a reason you don't want _anyone_ dating Lilly?" Miley said slyly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Joe glared at all of them. "Look, Evan's my friend and I don't want him to get hurt when she says no. She has to say no," he added under his breath.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

"So what did you want to talk about?" Lilly asked, looking up at Evan.

"I-uh-well, the thing is…do you want to go out with me? I know the first time you said no, but second time's the charm right?"

She tilted her head and smiled at him. "I thought the saying was 'third time's the charm…'"

"Okay, I'll ask you again if you want. Lilly, will you have dinner with me on Friday?" he was more confident this time.

"Yeah. I think it'll be fun," she said grinning. Sure there were no butterflies like there were with Joe, but Evan was nice and it seemed like they could get along pretty well. If anything else, it'd be really great to have another friend come out of this whole dating situation. She saw him turn and give someone a thumbs up, and then saw Miley waving at the two of them, grinning like an idiot. "Are you date number four?"

"Yeah. I knew that Miley was looking for dates for you, and so I asked her if I could be one of them" he said cheerfully.

"Wait, the entire school knows that she's looking for dates for me? Man, everyone must think I'm such a loser!"

"No one thinks that. At least no one that matters. People know that you've been burned pretty badly by some guy, so everyone's really understanding….Well, I gotta go. Here's my number, and I'll talk to you more about the date later?" At Lilly's nod, Evan smiled again and walked away.

Back at the table Joe slumped in his seat. He hadn't needed Evan's thumbs up or Miley's smile to know Lilly's response. She said yes, and now he didn't know what he was supposed to do.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

Joe was not spying. He was not stalking them, either. He was simply looking out for two of his friends who happened to be on a date and who were completely unaware that he was following them. And hiding behind a potted plant, watching them from across the room was a perfectly acceptable way in which to look after his friends. Okay, fine. Maybe he was spying. But it was for their own good. Really.

And him bribing the maitre d' to seat the couple at their worst possible table had nothing to do with any ulterior motives. Being in a famous band definitely had it's perks… It was probably pathetic, but Joe derived some sort of sick satisfaction from seeing Evan being knocked in the back with the doors to the kitchen when the waiters and waitresses went in and out of the kitchen.

Joe did have to admit that Evan had good taste. He hadn't expected the quarterback to bring Lilly to someplace so fancy. But expensive restaurants and flashy dates weren't enough to win Lilly's heart. He sighed as he looked at her. She was absolutely breathtaking. She was one of those girls who looked dressed up without losing that spark that made her Lilly. It was funny thinking how she looked just as amazing in her normal, everyday clothes as she did in an elegant dress.

Which is why he cringed when the waiter he had bribed to spill soup in Evan's lap accidentally spilled the soup on Lilly instead. Luckily, it was a cold soup so it didn't burn her, like that one time he'd spilt hot chocolate on her... But it did make kind of a mess. Lilly just laughed it off as Evan and the waiter apologized profusely.

She smiled at Evan from across the table and touched his hand. Joe felt something in his stomach tighten and the entire room felt like it was getting smaller. His heart constricted and he found that it was getting harder to breathe. _She shouldn't be smiling at him like that_, he thought angrily. _She should be smiling at me. She should be with me._

That's when it hit him. _Oh God. I'm in love with her!_

**HMHMHMHMHM**

"I'm so so so so so so sorry!" Evan was apologizing again. For the soup, for the table, for everything.

"Relax, Evan! So far, this is the best date I've been on by _far_," Lilly reassured him. She reached across the table and touched his hand. "And don't worry about the whole soup thing. Joe's spilled worse on me. He insisted on having hot chocolate one day and as he was walking towards me, he tripped and the entire thing got all over me! It really hurt!"

Evan looked at her a little funnily at the mention of Joe, but she just brushed it off. "So this is the best date you've been on so far?" At her nod, he smiled self-deprecatingly. "I guess those must have been absolutely terrible dates if this one's good in comparison…"

Lilly laughed and tried to wipe the soup off of her dress. "They were! But this one's actually fun. Despite everything."

"Well wait til you taste the food! It's fantastic! Have you been here before?" he asked.

"A couple of times. Joe and his family took me, Miley and Oliver." A disappointed look crossed Evan's face, like he had wanted this to be her first visit so that he could impress her. "It's one of my favorite restaurants," she added, hoping to make him feel better. He immediately brightened.

"So…" he said trying to change the subject. "Why is Miley looking for dates for you?"

Lilly sighed. "I told her that I wasn't interested in dating again. Ever. But she didn't agree, so we agreed that she could set me up with five dates, and after that she'd leave me alone. Although I think her main idea was to help me get my mind off of Jake…and I'd have to admit that it's working. I mean, I do think about him sometimes, but not as often and it doesn't hurt nearly as much…"

Evan's mouth had dropped open at the mention of Jake. "Jake? Jake Ryan?" Lilly nodded.

"You dated Jake Ryan?"

"Yes, and it ended horribly." She then proceeded to outline the entire demise of her relationship with the actor. By the time she finished, his face had darkened and he was scowling.

"Do you want me to beat him up for you?"

Lilly giggled. "Nah. Joe took care of that for me...he can be pretty menacing when he wants to be. I'm pretty sure he threatened Jake, but I can't be certain..."

Evan gave her a funny look. She wasn't imagining it this time. "Do you like him?" he asked.

"Jake?" she asked, wrinkling her nose. "I _did_. I mean I went out with the guy. But not anymore."

"I'm not talking about Jake. I'm talking about Joe." Lilly blushed. A lot.

"Why do you say that?" she asked, attempting nonchalance.

'Well you have brought him up three times in the last three minutes…"

"I'm sorry," Lilly sighed. "I should have told you that I was interested in someone else."

"And that someone else is Joe," Evan concluded.

"I'm really sorry," she apologized again.

"Don't worry about it. I already knew. I just wanted to see if maybe…you might begin to like me, instead."

She really didn't know what to say to that, so she remained silent.

Evan was the one who spoke next. "You know, even if you and I aren't going out, we can still be friends, right?"

A smile stretched across Lilly's face. "I'd like that. A lot."

Just then, their food came. At least, they thought it was their food. After everything else that had gone wrong that night, it was only natural that their food would come charred completely black. The two looked at each other and did the only thing they could do. They laughed.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

"Hellooooooooooo?" Lilly called as she entered the Oken household the morning after her date with Evan. They were all meeting to discuss their weekend plans, and Miley and Oliver were already there.

"How was the date?" Miley asked in greeting.

"It was terrible, but we had a good time," she answered. The brunette looked confused.

"Okay, then…"

"We've also decided not to see each other as, you know, dates because I'm interested in someone else…" Lilly added.

"Hmm, so I guess the search for date number five is on," Oliver interjected.

"Actually, I kind of have an idea of who I want date number five to be, but we'll talk about it later. The Jonases will be here soon, and I'm meeting Evan for lunch at one."

"Um…I thought you guys weren't gonna go on any more dates," Miley said, puzzled.

"That doesn't mean we aren't going to be friends. And friends have lunch with each other," Lilly explained.

As soon as she had finished speaking, Nick, Joe and Kevin entered the house. Miley had an idea. Even if Lilly and Evan weren't going out, Evan could still make Joe jealous…

"Hey guys, we should hurry the meeting up. Lilly's meeting Evan for lunch in a couple of hours," she said.

Joe stiffened. "You're going out with him again?"

"It's not actually a – " Lilly started, but Miley interrupted her.

"We should really hurry up," she announced.

Joe just kept going. "Even after the crappy restaurant table, the tomato soup getting spilled all over you and the burnt food, you're going to go out with him again? I can't believe this!"

Lilly stilled. "How did you know all that?"

"I-uh-um…you told me?" Joe supplied lamely.

"No, I didn't. I haven't even told Miley yet. How did you know all that?" she repeated.

"Fine, I followed you."

"You followed us?" she asked incredulously. She couldn't believe this.

"It was for your own good!" he defended himself. As soon as the words left his mouth he knew it was the wrong thing to say. The flashing defiance in her eyes confirmed that.

"How could this possibly be for my own good?"

"Evan isn't right for you! I had to look out for you!"

"You sabotaged our date, didn't you?" Lilly suddenly accused him. The rest of the room was just staring back and forth between the two of them.

"What? Why would you say that?" Joe stammered.

"Well if you just happened to see us from across the room, how did you know what kind of soup it was?" She had him there. Joe tried to figure out a way out of this mess. He really hoped he hadn't ruined things with her completely.

"It's not what you think," he began.

"Then what is it?" she snapped. "Is this some sort of game for you? Do you think this is funny? This is my heart, Joe. These are my feelings, and his, too! He could have been the one!"

He flinched at those words. Was it true? Was Evan the guy for her? "I just…I don't want you going out with anyone else!" he shouted.

"Why?" she said in a fair shout of her own. Without even realizing it, they had moved closer to each other. The two were now practically nose-to-nose.

"Because!"

"That isn't an answer! "

"It's my answer."

"Tell me why."

"BECAUSE!"

"JUST TELL ME!" she shouted.

"FINE!" Joe bellowed. "Because of this!" And without warning, he reached out, grabbed her by the shoulders, and roughly pressed his lips to hers.

For a few moments, Lilly was almost frozen in shock. There was still anger floating around in her head, but it was being overtaken by a sort of bliss at the feel of his lips moving roughly over her own. He started to pull away, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and she kissed him back. It was perfect. It was flawless. And it was over far to soon.

He pulled away forcefully and looked at her with a kind of manic gleam in his eyes. Lilly was too stunned to move. He had kissed her!

"So now you know," he whispered. Then he walked out the door, leaving a very confused Lilly behind.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

The next week was very awkward for Joe and Lilly. Whenever she tried to talk to him, he'd make up some lame excuse about having to finish his homework or feed the dog. Since she knew that they had no dog, she knew that he was trying desperately to avoid her. And it hurt. A lot. So by Tuesday, she just stopped trying.

They didn't eat lunch together anymore. If they could help it, they made sure that they wouldn't even see each other in the hallways at school, and their friends were starting to get worried.

Lilly was despondent over the fact that Joe wouldn't talk to her. She felt that it would just be too awkward to hang out with Miley and Oliver with Nick and Kevin around so she ate lunch at school with Evan. She didn't go anywhere anymore or hang out with anyone. The few times that she had gone over to Miley's house, Miley was sure that she heard her crying over Joe in the bathroom. But the worst part was that she was trying to act like nothing was wrong, and Miley didn't know how to broach the subject of Joe without making it worse.

For his part, Joe was also depressed. For the first couple of days, he had thought Lilly was dating Evan. She ate lunch with him, and sometimes he saw them walking in the halls together. When Nick finally convinced him that the two weren't dating, he was positive that he'd blown his chance. Lilly deserved someone so much better than him…But all he wanted to do was tell her everything, that he loved her, that he missed her…and then there was that kiss…

The week dragged on with neither of them speaking to the other, and before they knew it, it was the night of Mikayla's premiere. She had flown them all out to New York, and that's where they were now. Lilly, Miley and Chrissy were in one room, Oliver and Nick in another, and Joe and Kevin were in a third room.

"Maybe you should try talking to him again?" Miley suggested to Lilly, as the two girls were getting ready.

"What's the point? It's obvious that he doesn't want tot talk to me. I blew it…he wants nothing to do with me now. Maybe if I hadn't yelled at him…" Lilly sighed as Chrissy curled her hair.

"But you should still try…you never know what could happen!" the older girl added helpfully.

"I just don't understand why he would kiss me, why he'd go through all that trouble for me not to date Evan, and then just avoid me like the plague not even a day later. I guess he really doesn't like me like that…"

"That's ridiculous!" Chrissy exclaimed. "I've seen the way he looks at you."

"But what if he decided after we kissed that he doesn't like me anymore. Or what if he never did in the first place, and everyone was just imagining it. What if he doesn't feel anything towards me and he just doesn't know how to break it to me gently?"

"You know none of that is true, Lilly!" Miley declared.

"No, no I don't. Because if he really liked me, after such a mind-blowing kiss, he wouldn't be avoiding me. And I don't know how to deal with it."

"Just…just talk to him!" her friend repeated.

"No thanks, I'm not up for anymore heartache."

Miley's heart sank at this. When she had embarked on her little plan to find Lilly's perfect guy and then to make Joe jealous, she never thought it would end up with her best friend heartbroken once again.

"I'm really sorry about all of this," she said to Lilly. "I never meant for any of this to happen."

"It's not your fault," the blonde reassured her best friend. "It's just…part of life, I guess. When's date number five?"

"Date number five? After all this, you still want to go through with it?" Miley was incredulous.

"A deal's a deal, right?"

"I guess so…well, if you're up for it, date number five is tonight. He'll be your date to the premiere," Miley said. Lilly didn't dare to let herself hope that it might be him. But her heart lightened considerably. She threw herself more vigorously into getting ready. If it was Joe, she wanted to look perfect. Soon, all three girls were ready.

"Your date is coming!" Chrissy called out. A few seconds later, there was a knock on the door. Lilly took a deep breath and opened it.

"You're my date?" she asked. The boy nodded, and Lilly's heart sank. Standing there was a Jonas, but not the one she was expecting..

**HMHMHMHMHM**

**So that was my little attempt at a cliffhanger. It's not really much of one, but yeah…so Lilly and Joe are starting to realize how right they are for each other, and they kissed! Yay! And yay for a gratuitous Jackson appearance! I realized that he hadn't been in this fic at all, and I thought he needed a little love…Originally, the angst and drama between Lilly and Joe in that last section was going to be it's own chapter, but I thought it might be a little too much, so I compressed it. Next chapter is the premiere! And it might very well be the last chapter. Woohoo!**

**Again, I would totally love it if you guys reviewed. With constructive criticism, ideas, predictions, or just pleas to update soon. All reviews are lovely and they make my day. So pleeeeeease review?**

**Thanks for reading!  
-v**


	8. Chapter 8

**WARNING: This chapter gets super cheesy. So if you're lactose intolerant, tread carefully. Get it? Cheesy and lactose intolerant…haha. No? Nothing? Sad…**

**Anyway, here is chapter 8, the last actual chapter! There will be an epilogue, but yes…So I was extremely excited to see that my story has over 100 reviews! You guys are amazing and just make me feel really awesome about writing! I have a couple of more oneshots and stories planned, so this won't be my last story. So thank you for the reviews, and the favorites, and the story alerts. It's been really awesome. Thank you!**

**P.S. If I owned the Jonas Brothers (and Hannah Montana, too), that would be wicked awesome. But I don't…so not so wicked awesome…**

**pps. Let it be known that I have absolutely no clue how premieres/red carpet affairs work, so I just made up how I think it would work. If it isn't actually how it goes, whoops…**

**HMHMHMHMHM**

"Kevin?" Lilly asked, confused. She looked back at Chrissy, who just nodded encouragingly at the younger girl. "Then who-"

"I'm going with Frankie. Since Mikayla's movie is a Disney movie, Frankie really wanted to come, and I thought it'd be nice if I brought him," said Chrissy.

"You don't have to do this," Lilly told Kevin. He just shrugged.

"I want to," he reassured her. "You're one of my favorite people on the planet! Of course I'd do this."

"It's my way of conceding," Miley said quietly. "I'm not interfering anymore. I didn't realize how much this whole thing would hurt you."

"But it didn't – " Lilly began.

"But it did. It really did. If I hadn't interfered, you would have gone through the whole post-breakup process naturally. Then maybe you and Joe would have come together on your own. Actually, I'm sure you would have." Miley bit her lip and looked at her friend.

The blond just shook her head. "You can't know that. If anything, you helped me. I haven't cried over Jake in ages. It doesn't hurt so much to think of him, and that's because you forced me to get over it. And the whole thing with Joe…maybe it just wasn't meant to be."

"But I instigated that last fight," Miley insisted. "If I hadn't been deliberately trying to provoke Joe to admit that he liked you, he probably wouldn't have snapped like that."

"You can't be sure, though. You have nothing to be sorry about. Joe did what he did, and I did what I did. I don't blame you for any of it. But…thank you, for trying to take the blame, for caring enough to do all this, for everything." Lilly walked over and gave her friend a hug. There were tears in her eyes.

"Oh! Oh! Don't cry!" Miley pleaded. "If you cry, I'll cry and we'll mess up our makeup!" The girls giggled dabbed at their eyes.

"Are you ladies ready to go?" Kevin queried. He had been watching the scene from the doorway, with a smile on his face. 

"Yeah, but what about Nick, Frankie and Joe?" Lilly asked. Oliver was already with Mikayla, so that left the brothers to get ready on their own. Lilly was mainly concerned about Joe, though. She was wanted to see him, even if she wasn't up to talking to him. Her heart ached at the thought of him but she resolved to just have a good time tonight. 

"Um…Joe isn't coming," Kevin said gently. 

"What?" she exclaimed.

"He said he isn't really feeling well, so he's not coming." If Lilly had been looking at his face, he would have seen an expression of disappointment as well as a tinge of disgust. But she was looking down instead.

"Oh," she said quietly. Inside she was breaking. So that was it. He was set on avoiding her everywhere. Her heart grieved for the loss. Not only had she lost a shot at love, but she'd lost one of her very best friends. In the past six weeks (except for last week) they had been practically inseparable. Where one was, the other was usually there, and she had gotten used to that. In that moment, she didn't feel like going to the premiere either. She wanted to throw herself on the bed and cry; she wanted to knock down Joe's door and scream at him; she wanted to throw the world's biggest tantrum until things went back to normal…mostly, though, she just wanted to fly back home and avoid the premiere like the plague… But she'd promised Mikayla…

"We're meeting Frankie and Nick in the lobby. Are you going to be okay?" Kevin asked her. 

"Why wouldn't I be?" she answered, forcing a smile. She took his arm and the four of them made their way to the lobby.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

"You're making a mistake," Nick told Joe as he shrugged on a jacket. "You should go."

"I know…but I can't," Joe said with a sigh.

"You mean you won't," Frankie scoffed, rolling his eyes. "You're a chicken."

"And an idiot," Nick added.

"Thanks for the pep talk." Joe rolled his eyes at his brothers. Didn't they think that he knew all of this? He just…he just couldn't talk to her. Gosh, Frankie was right. He was a chicken! And from his eight year-old brother, too. Still, he couldn't bring himself to do what he needed to do.

Looking at their situation logically, he knew that there was nothing wrong with their relationship that a good, heart-to-heart conversation couldn't fix. She hadn't done anything wrong, and neither had he, really, until he started avoiding her. He was just afraid. Afraid that she didn't feel the same way, but he was also terrified that she did. Because if she did, he could screw it up far worse than he had already. And Lilly was special. He didn't want to screw anything up. 

Nick's voice broke into his thoughts. "You know where to find us if you change your mind."

"Thanks, little bros," Joe said quietly.

"No problem," responded Frankie. "But you're still a chicken." And with that, he and Nick were out the door. A few minutes later, Joe got up and followed them. Even if he wasn't going to the premiere, he still wanted to see her. He had to see her. So there he was, lurking in the lobby, hoping to catch a glimpse of the group.

He saw a glimmer of gold, and there she was. When he looked her, he caught his breath. She looked absolutely stunning. She was wearing a simple gold dress that came to her knees. Her hair was down and curled, She was beautiful, and she was on someone else's arm. Albeit it was Kevin and he knew that his brother wouldn't try anything (especially since Chrissy was right there), but still…Joe wished it was him that she was with. And it could have been. He watched her laugh at something Kevin said and something twisted inside of him. Gah! Why was he so stupid? He wanted to run after her and kiss her, he wanted to tell her that he loved her, but instead he just walked dejectedly back to the room.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

"Nick! Over here!"

"Kevin, look this way!"

"Frankie! You're adorable!"

"Nick! Nick! Look here!"

Miley's ears were overwhelmed by the sounds of the reporters and photographers screaming at the boys for their attention. She spotted Mikayla somewhere in the crowd, and gave a small wave that the movie star most likely saw because Miley was sure she waved back. She heard Nick sigh and felt him tense up.

"Let's get this over with," she heard him mutter as he plastered a smile on his face. Miley did the same as he led her over to a reporter from Entertainment Weekly who looked really familiar.

"Oooh," the reporter drawled, with a look in her eyes that reminded Miley of a documentary that she saw about sharks and how they looked when they smelt fresh blood. She had a feeling that this was not going to go well. "Nick Jonas has a new girlfriend?"

"Yup! We've been seeing each other for a while now, and we're just having a good time," he said proudly.

"And what's your name?" the reporter asked.

"Miley," the brunette responded, not letting the fake smile slip. She remembered this reporter, now. She had done an "expose" on Hannah Montana "secrets" that were completely untrue. Miley gritted her teeth and decided to just get it all over with.

At the mention of the name, the reporter's eyes narrowed. "That name's pretty unusual, but it sounds familiar…You're the girl who dated Jake Ryan!"

Miley inwardly groaned and Nick's arm tightened around her protectively. "Yes, we did date for a little while."

"What made the relationship fizzle? He wasn't famous enough for you?" She heard Nick growl a little at the implication, but Miley used her experience at handling reporters as Hannah Montana to keep her cool.

"We just grew apart. Jake is still a good friend, and I talk to him often but the spark wasn't there anymore." Miley took a breath. It sounded like a good answer. She hoped it was.

"Hmmm…going from Jake Ryan to Nick Jonas…one would think that you're starting to getting accustomed to the celebrity life." There was a catty gleam in the reporter's eyes and she could see Nick openly scowling at the woman. Miley found it harder to maintain her smile when all she wanted to do was scratch the reporter's eyes out.

Instead, she replied innocently, "I'm not quite sure what you mean by that."

The reporter smiled coldly and moved the microphone away from her mouth. She leaned in so that Miley and Nick could hear her but no one else could. The cameraman looked confused. "What I mean," she said coolly. "Is that I think that you're an attention-grabbing, wannabe-famous, social climber and that is exactly what I'm going to tell the world when the show airs tomorrow."

Nick looked angry and his face was turning red. He really did not do a good job of hiding his emotions on the red carpet, but in that moment Miley thought that it was more sweet than anything else. 

"If you say anything negative about my girlfriend, there will be a long letter of complaint on your boss's desk from me, my brothers and several other celebrities calling for your job. Miley is not a gold digger, she's not a fame seeker, she's just a normal girl who happens to be dating a guy who's a celebrity. She could be famous if she chose to be, but she doesn't want that. If you say anything about her at all, let's just say you won't be happy with the results." The smile was suddenly back in place. "Have a nice night and enjoy the premiere!" And with a falsely cheery wave he led Miley away. 

She looked back and sweetly said, "It was nice talking to you!" before she let Nick take her away. The reporter looked equal parts angry and scared and it made Miley laugh.

"The nerve of that woman!" Nick muttered. "How dare she think that you- that – that – ugh!" 

Miley smiled at him. "It's okay, Nick. Really."

"No, no it's not! I can't believe she talked to you like that! She's lucky I don't make a habit of hitting girls…"

"But you helped me," she told him. "My hero." She playfully threw her arms around him dramatically and batted her eyelashes up at him. She knew it was a bad idea as soon as she saw all the camera flashes. "Great…now that picture's going to be across all the tabloids by tomorrow morning," she muttered as she pulled away.

Nick just laughed and put his arm around her. He gave her a kiss on the cheek, which elicited more flashbulbs. "You're silly. But that's one of the many reasons that I'm absolutely crazy about you."

Miley looked at him and smiled again. "I'm pretty crazy about you, too."

Nick was just about to lean in and kiss her when a very excited Frankie ran up to them with a breathless Chrissy in tow. "Nick! Nick!" the little boy cried. 

"Hey Frankie, where are Kevin and Lilly?" Nick looked around seeing if he could spot the two, but they were nowhere to be found.

"We lost them," Chrissy explained. "But we're meeting up with Mikayla later so I'm sure they'll be there, too." Nick nodded. Frankie was demanding attention again.

"There are people from the Disney channel here! Can we go talk to them!" The way Frankie was shouting, it really didn't sound like a question. It was more of a demand. The three followed Frankie over to the Disney Channel correspondent, with Frankie still holding on to Chrissy's hand. The reporter looked to be about 12, and she smiled when she saw Nick and Frankie. Apparently, they were broadcasting live from the premiere on the Disney Channel.

"Hi, I'm Frankie Jonas!" he told her cheerfully.

"Hi Frankie," the girl said smiling. "How are you enjoying the red carpet?"

"It's really exciting! I'm glad I got to go to this one, and I'm really excited about seeing Mikayla's movie!"

"So are you guys good friends, then?"

Frankie smiled. "She's friends with my brothers, but she's my friend, too. And she's really pretty…good with the acting and the singing and stuff…" He blushed.

Miley laughed quietly to Nick. "I wonder where he got that one from," she whispered in his ear. It was Nick's turn to blush.

"Shush," he said.

The girl laughed at Frankie's comment and continued to ask him some questions. Frankie was a natural at answering questions. Occasionally he'd look to Nick to see if he said the right thing, but the little boy was really funny and really relaxed and the reporter was having a good time talking to him. Nick, Miley, and Chrissy were having a blast listening to him, too. He had Joe's innate sense of humor tempered by Nick's quietness and Kevin's sweetness. And he was totally loving it.

"So I have to ask," the Disney Channel reporter said teasingly. "Is this your girlfriend?" She was referring to Chrissy.

"No, this is Kevin's girlfriend," he answered bluntly. Chrissy opened her mouth to protest but nothing came out, and she was blushing profusely.

The reporter looked confused. "But I saw Kevin here with another girl…a blonde girl?"

"Oh, that's Lilly. She's our friend. She should be here with Joe, but he's being a bonehead, so Kevin decided to take her. So I got to come with Chrissy." Nick was struggling not to laugh, Miley was cringing and Chrissy looked torn between cracking up and covering Frankie's mouth before he said anything that he might regret later (especially if Joe heard him…).

"So Lilly is Joe's girlfriend?"

"No, but he wants her to be. And she wants to be his girlfriend, too. But Joe is being a dummy about it." He looked like he was about to continue, but Miley put her hand on his shoulder.

"Okay, Frankie, we should probably get going. We don't want to miss seeing Mikayla, do we?" And with that, they all said bye and walked away.

"You do know that Joe is going to kill your little brother, don't you?" Miley asked Nick.

"Oh yeah. But it was totally worth it," Nick answered, cracking up.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

Lilly was having a surprisingly good time at the premiere. Not that she hadn't expected to have a good time with Kevin, because they always had fun together, but she just thought she'd be depressed about Joe all night. But as long as she didn't think of him, she was okay, so she shoved all thought of him out of her mind. Or she tried to, anyway. It was just really weird, because she thought she kept seeing him everywhere. A face in the crowd, disappearing around a corner, or talking to reporter…she just kept thinking that she saw him…

But she was having a lot of fun. She was meeting a lot of different celebrities, like Carrie Underwood and Amy Adams. She thought she caught a glimpse of Lucas Grabeel and she really wanted to meet him…THERE HE WAS AGAIN! Before she could see if the guy was really Joe, Kevin tugged on a lock of her hair. 

"Hey big brother?" she said looking up at him.

"Yeah?" Kevin asked.

"Thanks for everything."

"You're welcome, lil sis," he said. He gave her a big hug and kissed her forehead. He led her over to another interviewer.

When she looked back at the guy, he was gone.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

He knew that following her to the premiere was a bad idea. He should have learned his lesson from the last date he followed her on, but he just couldn't help it. As soon as he got back to his room, Joe knew that he had to talk to her. And soon. Following her seemed like a good idea at the time…

He saw her laughing and smiling with Kevin and he gritted his teeth. Joe also struggled not to growl too loudly when his brother kissed her forehead. He had been trying to make his way over to her, but every three steps he took, there was another interviewer in his face. Ugh, it was so frustrating. As soon as he got done with his last interview, he tried to find her, but he lost her. He started looking for, but another microphone was shoved in front of him. He sighed and settled in to do another interview. He hoped he could find her later.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

Lilly and Kevin were waiting in front of the theater for Mikayla, Oliver and everyone else. Kevin was getting a little worried because he hadn't heard anything from Frankie or Chrissy. He wasn't worried about the others, but Chrissy had never been to something like this before and Frankie was just seven…

"I'm going to go look for them," Kevin finally said.

"Do you want me to go with you?" Lilly asked him.

He thought for a moment. "No, that's okay. One of us should stay here if they show up. Give me a call if they do, okay?" And with that, Kevin was gone. Lilly stood there waiting for everyone to show up. She caught a glimpse of someone in the crowd, and her heart skipped a beat. Was it Joe? She really wanted it to be Joe…but he disappeared. In frustration, she decided to put him out of her mind and turned around to examine her surroundings. She hadn't really had a chance to do that yet, and no one was paying any attention with her now that she wasn't with Kevin... She was just admiring a movie poster on the wall when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Her heart soared. It was Joe. It had to be.

She turned around and smiled. "Joe-" she started to say. But her smile faded when she saw who it really was. "Jake," she said coolly. 

"Lilly, can we please talk?" She noted apathetically that Jake looked quite handsome, but she felt nothing more for him except a lingering contempt. There was no pain or anger, just disgust.

"Jake, I've said it before and I'll say it again. We have nothing to talk about." She tried to walk away from him, but just like last time, he grabbed her arm. He squeezed, and she felt pain. "Let go of me, Jake. You're hurting me."

"Not until you talk to me."

"Let go," she insisted.

"No," he began to drag her away. She resisted. "If you don't want Miley's secret out, you'll come with me." Lilly's mouth dropped open. He had to be bluffing…But she followed him anyway. He led her to a semi-secluded area and just stared at her. She crossed her arms and glared at him. "You look so beautiful," he said.

She didn't soften. "You have five minutes, Jake."

"I love you, Lilly. And you still love me, too," he proclaimed.

"Except I don't. I stopped loving you the moment I found out that you were still dating Mikayla while you were dating me."

"That was a mistake. It won't happen again!"

"You're right. It was a mistake and it won't happen again." She watched his face brighten. The idiot actually thought that she was going to take him back now. "It won't happen again because you won't have the opportunity to do it again. Not to me. Now if that's all, I need to find my friends." She began to walk away, but he grabbed her shoulders much like Joe had the week before. This time it hurt. A lot. 

"This time, Joe isn't here to save you," Jake said desperately. And like Joe had, he smashed his lips onto hers but it did not feel good at all. She struggled against him, trying to pull away but he wasn't relenting. She pushed at him and hit him but he didn't show any signs of stopping…but then he was gone.

She looked just in time to see a completely enraged Joe Jonas plant his fist in Jake's face. There was a sick crunch and Jake's nose started bleeding. "I told you never to touch her again," he yelled as he punched the actor again. A crowd of photographers, reporters and stars ran in their direction to see what the commotion was all about. A security guard ran up to Joe and kept him from hitting the other boy again.

"What's going on here?" the guard asked, restraining Joe.

"That…that…thing assaulted her!" Joe shouted, pointing at Lilly. The guard looked at Lilly.

"Is this true, ma'am?" Lilly nodded mutely, still in shock from Jake basically attacking her. The security guard shook his head, let go of Joe and picked up Jake, whose nose was still gushing blood. "Come with me, son." And the guard led him away.

Joe and Lilly stared at each other. They didn't notice the cameras trained in their direction or all the eyes staring at them. They didn't notice that Kevin, Chrissy and the rest of their group had somehow found their way to the front of the circle surrounding them.

They didn't notice Frankie lean over to the Disney Channel interviewer, who happened to be near him, and say, "See? They're made for each other!" The reporter didn't take her eyes off the scene, but nodded mutely. The cameraman was filming Lilly and Joe.

The two of them just looked at each other. Lilly couldn't believe it. He was here. He had saved her. But most importantly, he was here. And in that moment, she was just so happy to see him that she'd have forgiven him everything.

"Hi," she said softly.

"Hello," he responded. Neither of them moved. "Are you okay?" Lilly nodded and smiled. "Good."

There was a silence that seemed to stretch forever. Their captivated audience watched them, hardly daring to breathe lest they break the spell. 

Joe took a few steps closer to her. "So this is the part where the hero tells the heroine what an idiot he's been and that he's absolutely mad about her. And he's sorry for being an idiot and chicken and he hopes that she'll forgive him and let him make it up to her, because without her he's a complete wreck and he needs her and – "

Lilly walked closer to him and placed a finger on his lips to shush him. "This is the part where the heroine tells the hero to just shut up and kiss her."

Joe smiled and put his arms around her. "Oh good, I thought you were going to say something corny like, 'You had me at hello'…" Lilly playfully glared at him. "Oh right…that kiss." And he leaned in and gently placed his lips on hers. It was amazing. Where there first kiss had been fierce and desperate, this one was soft and sweet and full of all the pent up feelings between them.

They only pulled away when they needed to come up for air. He rested his forehead on hers and they laughed. It was only then that they heard the sounds of clapping and cheering. Joe looked over and saw Nick, Kevin and Frankie clapping and whistling loudly. Mikayla was leaning into Oliver's side and looked suspiciously misty-eyed. Miley and Chrissy gave him a thumbs up, then clapped and cheered along with everyone else.

Lilly and Joe looked at each other and laughed, and Joe kissed her quickly again. Resting his forehead on hers once again, he whispered, "Does this mean I'm forgiven?"

"Hmmm," Lilly playfully pretended to think. "Mostly."

"Mostly?" She nodded. "I can live with that for now. I promise I'll make it up to you."

"How?" she asked.

"Like this." And he kissed her again. 

Lilly broke away, giggling. "That's just too cheesy." But she kissed him again anyway.

They knew that they still had things to work out and that it wasn't going to be perfect, in that moment, it was. Perfect, that is. They'd worry about all that, and the fact that the beginning of their relationship was being nationally broadcasted, later. In that moment, they had each other, and that was enough.

**HMHMHMHMHM**

**So that's it. There will be an epilogue which I have mostly planned out, but if there are any issues that you think I've left unresolved or any questions that you'd like me to answer in the epilogue, leave them in a review and I'll try to resolve them the best that I can in the epi. **

**So I'd absolutely love it if you guys would review! **

**P.S. Mad props to Istalri, luv me xoxo GossipGal, P. Hershberger for guessing Kevin (If I missed someone else who guessed Kevin, I'm really sorry!) I was **_**thisclose**_** to making it Frankie, but my reasoning was that some people might think that Lilly seemed a little desperate if she went with a seven year-old, and the next best thing would be Lilly going with her big brother. Plus Kevin hasn't had enough "screen time", in my opinion. So…yay!**

**To sassy123 and YoureMyFavoritex, were your guesses right?**

**Thank you guys so much for reading!  
-v**


	9. Epilogue

**So this is being posted really quickly, but I just finished writing it and I figured why not post it now? It's really sad to be finishing with this story. It's been my pet project for the past month, and it just makes me really sad that it's over. Thanks so much for reading!**

**Just a short little epilogue where you can find out where they now, and how everyone's relationship is going. I just wanted to offer a little glimpse of what their days are gonna be like (at least in my little universe). So that's it for this one. Thanks again to everyone for reading and reviewing! All the support has just made me ridiculously happy!**

**Since this is the last installment of this story, the disclaimer will be in Italian:  
Non possiedo i fratelli Jonas o Hannah Montana. Sono molto triste…  
(In my very, very poor Italian, it means that I don't own the Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana. I'm very sad.)**

**HMHMHMHMHM**

A month after the premiere, the usual suspects were sitting in Miley's living room, flipping through channels. They had just finished watching the movie,_Sky High_ and were just hanging out. 

Miley and Nick were settled in one arm chair and Chrissy and Kevin were in the other. Lilly and Joe were on the couch with Oliver sitting awkwardly next to them. Mikayla had convinced her parents to relocate to Malibu, and she was starting school at Seaview in a few days. She was actually supposed to be at Miley's house with them, but she had forgotten to do some chores so she was coming later.

While watching TV they came across a commercial for Mikayla's movie and they began talking about it. All of them had really liked the movie, and it had done pretty well in the box office.

"That's because of us," Joe boasted, slinging his arm around Lilly's shoulders.

Lilly laughed. "You mean you punching Jake Ryan in the face…"

"Twice!" Nick added cheerfully. 

"Whatever happened to him, by the way?" Kevin asked.

It was Miley who answered. "He called me the other day. He told me not to worry about my secret and that it was safe, and that he was pulling out of Seaview. He was also sentenced to 100 hours of community service for attacking Lilly."

"Wow, poor guy," Oliver said sadly.

Joe raised an eyebrow. "Poor guy? He attacked your best frie-" But before he could finish his sentence, Mikayla came storming into the house. Without a word, she gestured for Chrissy to follow her, grabbed Miley and Lilly by the wrists and led the girls upstairs. She completely ignored Oliver's meek "hi" and the other boys' confused greetings. 

As soon as he heard a door close upstairs, Oliver slumped in his seat. "I'm in so much trouble," he muttered.

"What did you do?" Nick asked sympathetically. He'd gotten into trouble with Miley before and he understood what the poor guy was going through.

"It's more of what I didn't do…" Oliver said with a sigh.

"He hasn't kissed you yet?" Miley asked incredulously up in her room. Mikayla nodded miserably. "But you've been going out for almost two months!"

"I know!" Mikayla groaned in frustration. "I've given him all the hints, all the signs, I might as well have come right out and said, 'kiss me already!' And I thought he was finally going to do it last night after our date, but he didn't!"

"Sweet niblets!" Miley exclaimed in exasperation. "That boy is such a doughnut!"

"Maybe you should kiss him?" Lilly suggested helpfully. "Miley kissed Jake."

"Believe it or not, I tried. After he chickened out last night, I tried to kiss him, but he turned his head at the last second and I got his cheek instead!" Mikayla dramatically threw herself on Miley's bed. Then just as suddenly she popped back up. "Oh my gosh! What if he wants to break up with me? What if he's not interested in me anymore? What if - ?" It sounded like Mikayla was about to go into full blown panic mode, so Chrissy stopped her with a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Why don't you just talk to him about it?" the older girl asked. 

"It's not that simple!" Mikayla cried.

"Isn't it?" Chrissy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't think it is," Mikayla said after a moment. "A kiss is a big deal. How did your first kiss with Kevin go?" 

"Believe it or not, we haven't kissed yet."

"You haven't?" It was Lilly who asked. She was a little shocked. Kevin and Chrissy were so affectionate in other ways that it seemed a foregone conclusion that they had kissed already.

"Nope. We're still in that getting-to-know each other phase. We don't want to rush things or anything, so we're waiting until the right moment. It might sound silly, for a kiss, but I want it to be special." Chrissy's smile widened. "But I really do want to kiss him…"

"I want to kiss Oliver, too," Mikayla sighed.

A little while later, the girls made their way downstairs. Oliver immediately jumped to his feet and grabbed Mikayla's hand.

"Can I talk to you?" he asked nervously. She nodded and he led her out to Miley's porch. He didn't notice that he didn't close the door all the way, so all the people in the living room could hear them and were watching them through the glass doors. 

Oliver took a deep breath. "I should have done this last night," he said. And he leaned down and kissed her. Miley, Chrissy and Lilly let out little squeals and returned to their boyfriends. 

"I don't think they're coming back for a while," Miley giggled. She started flipping through channels again in her seat with Nick. She suddenly stopped when a familiar face popped up on TV.

"This is the part where the heroine tells the hero to just shut up and kiss her," TV Lilly whispered.

"Ugh! They're still showing that?" real Lilly groaned.

Chrissy shrugged. "It's cute and romantic!"

"And a month old!" Lilly added.

"It's a nice video to have," Joe protested. "Our mom has like three copies. She especially likes the part where Frankie calls me a bonehead."

"But she also watches the part where Joe punches Jake and where Joe kisses you," Kevin added. "She actually watches that a lot…"

Lilly winced. "That may or may not be a little creepy…but I still love your mom."

"The tape isn't that bad!" It was Nick who said this.

"Yes, but it's video evidence that I actually used the line, 'shut up and kiss me' or some other variation," Lilly pouted. Joe laughed and just put his arm around her.

"True," Kevin said. Lilly glared at him.

"Hey Lilly!" Miley interrupted excitedly. "I totally just realized that my plan actually succeeded!"

"What plan?" The blonde girl looked confused.

"The plan to find your perfect guy!"

Lilly raised an eyebrow. "Still not following, here…"

Miley rolled her eyes at the other girl. "Joe fits everything on your list."

"What?"

"He's honest and you can trust him," Miley pointed out.

"And he's obviously funny and outgoing," Chrissy added, who had been informed of the list by Miley and Mikayla.

"Yeah, when you went out with Dull Dave, he was laughing at all your jokes, so you have the same sense of humor," Nick said.

"And we all know he's stubborn, " Kevin added.

"And as for physical characteristics, he's the right height, the right hair color, and he's definitely got his own sense of style…" Mikayla added as she and Oliver walked in hand in hand. Apparently they had heard the beginning of the conversation.

"And he's athletic," Oliver said.

"He's smart, too," Nick continued. "Sometimes…"

"Hey!" Joe interjected indignantly. Everyone ignored him.

"Nice and romantic,." That was Miley again. "He's religious, and you know his family means the world to him."

"And you, too, can have your own Joe Jonas for just 19.95, plus shipping and handling," Joe added sarcastically. Lilly giggled and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"And he loved you as Lola and as Lilly. From the beginning, he's seen the real you," Kevin said with a smile.

Lilly smiled at him, and snuggled into Joe. "I guess they're right," she said. "You are prefect for me."

"Duh!" Joe stated playfully. Lilly pulled away from him and punched him on the arm.

"Haha, you are so funny! And by funny, I mean not." She glared at him, but then burst into giggles. 

"Everything worked out for the best, I guess," Miley said happily.

"It definitely did," Lilly agreed.

Mikayla smiled at Oliver. "Yeah, I've never been happier that someone cheated on me."

"Me neither!" exclaimed Lilly. The two girls laughed. "You know, I guess thtat you could say that in the end, my boyfriend became my arch enemy, my arch enemy became my best friend, and my best friend became my boyfriend!"

"But hey, it's high school!" Joe finished.

The rest of the room groaned. 

"No more _Sky High_ for you," Kevin commanded.

"Just one more time?" Joe pleaded. Lilly gave the oldest Jonas the puppy dog eyes. Kevin relented and Joe and Lilly clapped their hands. They turned on the movie again and spent the rest of the afternoon watching movies and hanging out.

Joe sat on the couch with an arm around Lilly. He looked over at Miley and Nick who were whispering to each other and cuddling, at Oliver who was laying down on the floor with his head on Mikayla's lap, and at Chrissy and Kevin who were holding hands and looking comfortable. Lastly, he looked at Lilly, whose head was resting on his shoulder and who looked gorgeous. He realized that if it wasn't for Jake, they probably wouldn't be where they were in that moment. If Jake wasn't such an idiot, Mikayla and Oliver wouldn't be together. Chrissy and Kevin might never have met. And most importantly, Joe wouldn't have had Lilly. He tightened his arm around his girlfriend at the very idea.

He looked at his girlfriend again, smiled and thought, _Thanks Jake_. 

**HMHMHMHMHM**

**So there you have it. The very, very end of "If Cupid Had a Heart." Thanks again for all the love and support and everything. Much love to everyone who has reviewed/favorited/put this story on their alert list. You guys rock!**

**There probably won't be a sequel, because I don't know what else I'd write about for this story. I like to leave it at happily ever after. But there are a million other story ideas bouncing around inside my head and so I'll write one of those soon…**

**Here's a little poll though, for my next multi-chapter story, which should I do:**

**A. Lilly and Joe's relationship told through their friends' eyes.  
B. Lilly witnesses a crime, and for protection, she goes on tour with Hannah Montana and the JoBros. (It might sound ridiculous, her going on tour, but what better way to go into hiding than to travel around the country under an alias?)  
C. Lilly and Joe meet in their dreams and fall in love. Will they ever meet in real life?**

**These are just a few of my many ideas and they will all probably eventually get written. But if there's one that you'd like to see next, feel free to vote and let me know which I should start next.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**-v**


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